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What is the Peer Infrastructure?

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The Peer Infrastructure is a set of several APIs that are powerful and flexible. The major components include the following:

Peer Graphing API

The Peer Infrastructure provides a graphing technology that can pass information efficiently and reliably between peers in a peer graph. The Peer Graphing API ensures that each node has a consistent view of the data in a graph.

You can use the Peer Graphing API to do the following:

  • Create and manage peer graphs
  • Enumerate and interact with other peers in a peer graph
  • Send data in the form of a record to each node in a peer graph

Peer Grouping API

The Peer Grouping API combines and enhances the Peer PNRP and Graphing APIs, and adds the following two components:

  • A multiplexing layer that allows multiple applications running on one peer entity to connect to a group
  • A specific security model that ensures only peers invited to a group can connect to the group through the lifetime of the group

You can use the Peer Grouping API to do the following:

  • Create and manage secure peer groups
  • Enumerate and interact with other peers in a group
  • Send data in the form of a record to each node in a peer group

Peer Identity Manager API

By using the Peer Identity Manager API you can create secure peer names that PNRP can use to ensure that a person publishing a name officially owns the name. Peer names are also called identities, and they are used in the Peer Grouping API to identify the individuals in a group.

You can use the Peer Identity Manager API to do the following:

  • Create, enumerate, and manage peer identities.

PNRP Namespace Provider API

The Peer Infrastructure provides a serverless name resolution technology called the PNRP Namespace Provider API. By using the Winsock 2 PNRP Namespace Provider API, a peer, service, computing device, and peer group endpoint can manage, register, unregister, and resolve another endpoint in a PNRP cloud.

Note

PNRP is an acronym for peer name resolution protocol.