KOSH

Services

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The cybersea is the foundation for the provision of a rich set of services.

A service is defined as a set of functions provided by one or more entities that extends the potential of the cybersea for one or more citizens of the cybersea. Services enrich the cybersea in a general manner, whereas normal entities concentrate on particular tasks or problems.

There will be a minimum set of services that together form the Basic Sea Services Set. Without the full implementation of this set of services, then the creation and maintenance of a cybersea will not be possible. In following the philosophy of elegance through simplicity, the Basic Sea Service Set will be kept to a minimum. All entities will expect the Basic Services Set to be active and available to them at all times.

The Extended Sea Services Set describes any other service that is not within the Basic Sea Services Set. These services provide additional functionality but are not required for the cybersea to exist. The administrator of the sea is free to add whatever services they like, from a rich, full set of services, through specific seas tuned towards a certain nature of operation, to a minimalist sea, tuned for performance.

Each blueprint contains an Entity Requirements document, detailing the services required by an instance of the Entity Description document if it is to function. An administrator can set the cybersea to only create or wake an entity set ( a set of entities which were built from a single blueprint) if ALL required services exist OR it can be set so that an entity can perform its work as long as the services required are availalbe (providing a reduced function set).

Services are provided in two ways, either directly, or via a broker. Direct provision will see a standard queuing (FIFO) with no Quality of Service. The insertion of a broker entity allows for various types of service provision, resource allocation and management and Quality of Service, all tied together within a contract metaphor.

Services are described using the Logical Entity Interaction Language. This allows for multiple implementations of the service to exist.

Services must be registered within the cybersea. This allows for promotion and discovery of those services by any citizen of the sea. This allows for interrogation and discovery of services, and multiple provision of the same service (if required), allowing a network to offer a market of those services. In this case, a request for a service could return multiple providers. Whilst not desirable for a single user cybersea, it provides an essential service for a multi-user and multi-provider cybersea.

Below is a description of certain services. No decision has been made on what services will be in the Basic Sea Services Set. This is merely a list of possible services.

  1. Entity lifecycle services - a full description of states and processes for an entity
  2. Citizenship services - identity
  3. Delivery services - messages, entities, content
  4. Presentation services - allows entities to be represented in a user interface environment.
  5. Location services - locate an entity, a set of entities, a cybersea, a service based upon any type of recorded and promoted criteria.
  6. Immigration services - controls what comes in and what goes out of a cybersea
  7. Navigation services - Navigators and charts provide structure to the cybersea
  8. Directive services - security, licencing, behaviour
  9. Relationship services - ownership and social intercourse
  10. Environmental services - garbage collection, tuning, optimisations