A Typical Use-Case

The space server provides an elegant and practical approach to solving common scenarios in today's increasingly networked world. Distributed, collaborative, and parallel applications can be built using our space-based solution. The applications can be employed for a variety of purposes, like E.A.I (Enterprise Application Integration), trading services, reservation systems, online ordering systems, online auction systems, large computation-intensive jobs, workflow systems, mobile offices, and agent technology.

From the application point of view, the space can be seen as just another network service, such as mail service, LDAP service, storage service, etc.

The following diagrams show a basic scenario that illustrates how an application allocates a space and then uses the space to share information with another application.

Step 1

Whereas all space implementations provide a shared, associative, and transactional exchange of objects, each provides a different quality of service. A space can be used in memory only to provide high-performance exchange. It can use different types of persistent storage, each providing a different level of performance/reliability. Each space can be installed in a different environment (network, geographical location, etc.) that may also affect the level of service it provides for a specific application.

As a service, each space implementation makes itself known by publishing its proxy in one or more Lookup Services. In addition, each space publishes its specific characteristics, such as its name, persistence, location, etc.

Step 2

The application searches the network while defining the space characteristics it is looking for (closest, fastest, etc). The Lookup service returns to the client a proxy to the most suitable space.

Step 3

The application holds the space's proxy. The proxy encapsulates all the information regarding the space location. The application starts using the space by performing operations such as write(), read() and take() on the space proxy.

Step 4

Other applications can share the data by receiving a proxy of the same space service.