This paper describes the different communication patterns followed in industrial communications and maps them into DDS (Data Distribution Service) which is a recent middleware specification. This specification follows the publisher/subscriber paradigm and it is characterized by providing an API that allows tuning the QoS (Quality of Service) of the applications with a large set of parameters. This paper proposes using DDS as the backbone for industrial communications at the control level. In particular, we advocate its use to combine sending critical information such as alarms and real-time periodic information with less critical information related to configuration, diagnostic or maintenance operations.