The Communication Layer

LabSpace expects, naturally, to utilize a network of some type. Most, if not all, of the people sharing the collaborative environment will be doing so over digital networks. An important goal of LabSpace is to operate independently of the particular network type that is used, yet to take advantage of features provided by the network when they are available.

For example, not all network transport systems provide multicast support, but it is essential to some forms of large-scale communication. Therefore, multicast capability is supported within LabSpace, but is not required.

At the network interface, LabSpace supports these ideals:

• Unicast, multicast, and broadcast will be available if they are supported by the network.
• Secure communication based on public key encryption will be supported, as will other degrees of security, including host-based and domain-based restrictions as well as completely insecure communication.
• The details of the network implementation will be hidden in order to make code as portable as possible, but important information, such as potential bandwidth difficulties, will be available to the client.

LabSpace's design is not tied to a specific network implementation. It will work using TCP/IP or HIPPI, over wireless networks or through fiber optic cables.

The initial implementation of LabSpace will be built on TCP/IP, but a library will be provided that abstracts away the details of the networking implementation, allowing for portability of programs that use this library.

In order to accommodate existing code, the use of this library will not be required. Should a client wish to directly manipulate the network in order to exploit multicast, it is free to do so. However, the library will provide network independence that the client may not otherwise achieve.