For beginners, PXIe-8881 is a "computer" in a rugged PXI form factor. With this said, you can connect a monitor, mouse, keyboard, and ethernet to the PXIe-8881 and start using it as just another computer.
Since the PXIe-8881 is the "host" for that PXIe bus, it has direct access or connection to any PXI module installed in the chassis. To use any instrument in the PXI chassis, you just have to install the appropriate driver on the host (PXIe-8881) and use the computer just as you would use any other computer.
Next, remote gRPC is a new protocol on top of the drivers which allows controlling the instrument without logging into the PXIe-8881 controller. What happens is that there is a gRPC server/service running on the PXIe-8881 which listens on the ethernet for commands coming from other computers on the networks and redirects those commands to the driver layer running on the PXIe-8881 which in turn controls the appropriate instrument.
In the simplest way, you would either connect the monitor/keyboard etc., directly to PXIe-8881 and use it or connect the PXIe-8881 to your network, configure the remote desktop and from your laptop/computer from anywhere on your network remote into the PXIe-8881 just as another computer.
