Add (optional) Google Protocol Buffers support (example in Tutorial 3).

To use protobuf, run cmake as follows:
cmake -DUSE_PROTOBUF=1 ..
For this, protobuf library has to be installed on the system.

Further changes:
Clean up splitter/merger: default are N-to-1-merger and 1-to-N-splitter.
Fix bug in nanomsg message deallocation.
Setup proper buffer sizes for nanomsg/zeromq via cmake/bash script.
chmod +x for start scripts.

fairmq/prototest/FairMQProtoSampler.cxx

@@ -0,0 +1,173 @@
+/**
+ * FairMQProtoSampler.cpp
+ *
+ * @since 2013-04-23
+ * @author D. Klein, A. Rybalchenko
+ */
+
+#include <string>
+
+#include <boost/thread.hpp>
+#include <boost/bind.hpp>
+
+#include "FairMQProtoSampler.h"
+#include "FairMQLogger.h"
+
+#include "payload.pb.h"
+
+
+FairMQProtoSampler::FairMQProtoSampler() :
+  fEventSize(10000),
+  fEventRate(1),
+  fEventCounter(0)
+{
+}
+
+FairMQProtoSampler::~FairMQProtoSampler()
+{
+}
+
+void FairMQProtoSampler::Init()
+{
+  FairMQDevice::Init();
+}
+
+void FairMQProtoSampler::Run()
+{
+  LOG(INFO) << ">>>>>>> Run <<<<<<<";
+  //boost::this_thread::sleep(boost::posix_time::milliseconds(1000));
+
+  boost::thread rateLogger(boost::bind(&FairMQDevice::LogSocketRates, this));
+  boost::thread resetEventCounter(boost::bind(&FairMQProtoSampler::ResetEventCounter, this));
+
+  srand(time(NULL));
+
+  while ( fState == RUNNING ) {
+
+    sampler::Payload p;
+
+    for (int i = 0; i < fEventSize; ++i) {
+      sampler::Content* content = p.add_data();
+
+      content->set_x(rand() % 100 + 1);
+      content->set_y(rand() % 100 + 1);
+      content->set_z(rand() % 100 + 1);
+      content->set_a((rand() % 100 + 1) / (rand() % 100 + 1));
+      content->set_b((rand() % 100 + 1) / (rand() % 100 + 1));
+      // LOG(INFO) << content->x() << " " << content->y() << " " << content->z() << " " << content->a() << " " << content->b();
+    }
+
+    std::string str;
+    p.SerializeToString(&str);
+    size_t size = str.length();
+
+    FairMQMessage* msg = fTransportFactory->CreateMessage(size);
+    memcpy(msg->GetData(), str.c_str(), size);
+
+    fPayloadOutputs->at(0)->Send(msg);
+
+    --fEventCounter;
+
+    while (fEventCounter == 0) {
+      boost::this_thread::sleep(boost::posix_time::milliseconds(1));
+    }
+
+    delete msg;
+  }
+
+  rateLogger.interrupt();
+  resetEventCounter.interrupt();
+
+  rateLogger.join();
+  resetEventCounter.join();
+}
+
+void FairMQProtoSampler::ResetEventCounter()
+{
+  while ( true ) {
+    try {
+      fEventCounter = fEventRate / 100;
+      boost::this_thread::sleep(boost::posix_time::milliseconds(10));
+    } catch (boost::thread_interrupted&) {
+      break;
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+void FairMQProtoSampler::Log(int intervalInMs)
+{
+  timestamp_t t0;
+  timestamp_t t1;
+  unsigned long bytes = fPayloadOutputs->at(0)->GetBytesTx();
+  unsigned long messages = fPayloadOutputs->at(0)->GetMessagesTx();
+  unsigned long bytesNew = 0;
+  unsigned long messagesNew = 0;
+  double megabytesPerSecond = 0;
+  double messagesPerSecond = 0;
+
+  t0 = get_timestamp();
+
+  while (true) {
+    boost::this_thread::sleep(boost::posix_time::milliseconds(intervalInMs));
+
+    t1 = get_timestamp();
+
+    bytesNew = fPayloadOutputs->at(0)->GetBytesTx();
+    messagesNew = fPayloadOutputs->at(0)->GetMessagesTx();
+
+    timestamp_t timeSinceLastLog_ms = (t1 - t0) / 1000.0L;
+
+    megabytesPerSecond = ((double) (bytesNew - bytes) / (1024. * 1024.)) / (double) timeSinceLastLog_ms * 1000.;
+    messagesPerSecond = (double) (messagesNew - messages) / (double) timeSinceLastLog_ms * 1000.;
+
+    LOG(DEBUG) << "send " << messagesPerSecond << " msg/s, " << megabytesPerSecond << " MB/s";
+
+    bytes = bytesNew;
+    messages = messagesNew;
+    t0 = t1;
+  }
+}
+
+void FairMQProtoSampler::SetProperty(const int key, const string& value, const int slot/*= 0*/)
+{
+  switch (key) {
+  default:
+    FairMQDevice::SetProperty(key, value, slot);
+    break;
+  }
+}
+
+string FairMQProtoSampler::GetProperty(const int key, const string& default_/*= ""*/, const int slot/*= 0*/)
+{
+  switch (key) {
+  default:
+    return FairMQDevice::GetProperty(key, default_, slot);
+  }
+}
+
+void FairMQProtoSampler::SetProperty(const int key, const int value, const int slot/*= 0*/)
+{
+  switch (key) {
+  case EventSize:
+    fEventSize = value;
+    break;
+  case EventRate:
+    fEventRate = value;
+    break;
+  default:
+    FairMQDevice::SetProperty(key, value, slot);
+    break;
+  }
+}
+
+int FairMQProtoSampler::GetProperty(const int key, const int default_/*= 0*/, const int slot/*= 0*/)
+{
+  switch (key) {
+  case EventSize:
+    return fEventSize;
+  case EventRate:
+    return fEventRate;
+  default:
+    return FairMQDevice::GetProperty(key, default_, slot);
+  }
+}