[HOME_NETWORK_TF] API level

Dear all,

Thinking about a discussion on the level of APIs, which is full of 
various misunderstandings, I am summarizing here my take on this issue.

Option 1: lowest possible API = something like WebSockets at the UDP 
level (WebSockets being TCP)
The minimum to be able to implement UPnP is to have a UDP socket API, 
with broadcast and multicast, in the browser.
I believe the same would work for other protocols, but that needs to be 
confirmed.
WebSockets seems frozen because of security concerns, so obviously such 
an lower-level interface would be even more dangerous.
On top of this, we would need code to implement UPnP and equivalent (in 
whatever language, C or JS).
On top of UPnP, we would need code to implement generic discovery and 
messaging (in whatever language, C or JS).
If the UPnP layer is to be loaded per page, there are issues with 
multiple instances, resets, etc...

Option 2: specific discovery and service protocol interface, e.g. 
UPnP-specific interface
An example of that would be adding platinum, an open source UPnP 
package, to a browser and exposing a UPnP-specific API to JS.
On top of that, we would need code to implement generic discovery and 
messaging (independent of UPnP).

Option 3: generic discovery and service protocol interface
An example would be to add platinum to the browser, then implement (in 
whatever language, C or JS) a generic API on top of the option 2 
UPnP-specific API (which might not be exposed)

Security considerations:
Option 1 seems simply too dangerous, unless the API is accessible only 
with severe restrictions. That and the other issues disqualify this 
option for me.
Option 2 has the security issues of UPnP.
Option 3 probably has the same security issues as option 2 (at least, I 
have no proof that it does not).

Preference:
My stated preference is for option 3, including a messaging interface.
Other stated opinions cover the range of all above options.
There is actually many possibilities in between the above options, but I 
believe this provides useful references.
Best regards
JC

-- 
JC Dufourd
Directeur d'Etudes/Professor
Groupe Multimedia/Multimedia Group
Traitement du Signal et Images/Signal and Image Processing
Telecom ParisTech, 37-39 rue Dareau, 75014 Paris, France
Tel: +33145817733 - Mob: +33677843843 - Fax: +33145817144

Received on Tuesday, 21 June 2011 14:01:51 UTC