Jini by Example
The Jini technology makes a network more dynamic by allowing the plug-and-play of devices. It provides mechanisms for devices to join and detach from network dynamically without the need for configuring each device.
The central mechanism of a Jini system is the Lookup service that registers devices and services available on the network. It is also the major point of contact between the system and the users of the system.
When a device is plugged into the network, it locates the lookup service (discovery) and registers (join) its service there. While registering, the device provides a callable interface to access its functionality and attributes those may be useful while querying the lookup from another jini client perspective. Now, the service offered by the device may be located and used by clients on the network. This basically involves discovering lookup, querying it for the specific service and invoking the callable interface of the service required. The callable interfaces are exposed and accessed through Java RMI (Remote Method Invocation). The proxy code that is used to access an interface is stored within the lookup services during registration and downloaded by clients automatically. Thus the need for specialized drivers is eliminated.
