JXTA in a Nutshell

Conceptual Overview

JXTA is intended to be a small system with a limited number of concepts at its core. This section introduces the core concepts of JXTA.

Peers

A peer is any networked device (sensor, phone, PDA, PC, server, supercomputer, etc.) that implements the core JXTA protocols.

Each peer operates independently and asynchronously of all other peers. Some peers may be more dependent on other peers due to special relationships (gateways or routers).

Peers spontaneously discover each other on the network to form transient or persistent relationships called peergroups.

Peergroups are a collection of peers that have some common interests. Peergroups may also be statically predefined.

Peers that provide the same set of services tend to be interchangeable.

It may not matter which peers a peer interacts with.

Peers may publish network resources (CPU, storage, routing) to other peers.

A peer may cache information, but it is optional. Peers may have persistent storage.

Peers typically interact with a small number of other peers (network neighbors or buddy peers).

Assumptions must not be made about peer reliability or connectivity. A peer may appear or leave the network at any time.

Peers may provide network services that can be used by other peers.

Peers may have multiple network interfaces, though a peer does not need to publish all of its interfaces for use with the JXTA protocols. Each published interface is advertised as a peer endpoint.

A peer endpoint is a URI that ...