XLattice Peer
XLattice is a library of software supporting Peer-to-Peer communications. An XLattice network consists of two or more Nodes, Each such Node has a cryptographic identity, meaning that it has secret keys, the public part of which is known to its Peers, allowing them to easily establish secure, encrypted communications between them. XLattice Nodes have interfaces to Overlays such as the global Internet.
Peers
To an XLattice Node, a Peer is another XLattice Node, or something which behaves like one, with which the Node has established communications, or with which it knows how to establish communications. When an XLattice Node is started, it might be provided with a list of Peers, possibly from a configuration file in its local file system (LFS). Alternatively, it might learn a Peer’s BaseNode details when the Peer connects to one of the node’s endPoints. In any case, the node maintains a table of Peer descriptors, including the public part of each Peer’s RSA keys.
BaseNode Properties
A Peer shares BaseNode characteristics such as name, NodeID, RSA public keys, and Overlays.
Other Properties
Most importantly a Node associates with each peer one or more Connectors. A Connector is essentially a recipe for establishing a connection to the Peer. This will include
- a Gateway where necessary
- the Overlay through which the connection is to be made
- the Protocol to be used
- the Address of the Peer
