A smart http communicator: Smach

Abstract

Most developments and applications of current eBusiness systems focus on large enterprise systems. HTTP based full implementation of the Interne/Web protocol stack is used in such environment. On the other hand, small businesses or community works require simpler and smaller implementation not assuming big computer resource. This requirement exists also in other business-like environments such as robot communication, mobile devices and ubiquitous environment. Essential requirements for HTTP infrastructure are (1) to support HTTP protocol, and (2) to enable peer-to-peer communication. Currently existing infrastructures such as Apache and Mozilla, however, support more and do not fit to smaller and simpler applications. They were originally developed considering Web document access applications and have large functionality unnecessary for eBusiness communication. To solve this problem, we developed a new open source middleware essentially supporting HTTP and having both server and client feature called SMACH (Smart Communicator for HTTP). SMACH is designed based on three policies: small, bidirectional, and HTTP protocol focused. It supports minimum but enough HTTP communication function and symmetric APIs for server and client applications, having multi-threading based architecture with persistent TCP/IP connection pursuing maximum performance in small memory environments. SMACH can communicate with major existing products including Apache, IIS, Mozilla and IE, achieving high performance and small executable size. This paper provides its development policy, function, architecture, and results of interoperability tests and performance evaluation.