Open Source: An Introduction

to the AllJoyn Project

Greg Burns
Senior Director, Engineering, Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc.

Agenda

AllJoyn Overview
Architecture and Concepts
Security Framework
Performance Considerations
Code Example
Q&A

AllJoyn Overview

What is AllJoyn?
AllJoyn is a new proximity based mobile peer-to-peer
software framework developed by Qualcomm Innovation
Center, Inc. ("QuIC")

What we mean by Peer-to-Peer

But, How Do You

Simple Definition:
Communicating with
stuff around you
without need for a
server

Find and painlessly connect

to devices around you
Discover services running on devices
Adapt to devices coming and going
Deal with different transports
Interoperate across different
operating systems
Exchange information and services
Provide reliable performance
in wireless environments
Ensure no one nearby maliciously
hacks into your phone
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Framework: Removing Barriers

Developers write to a simple API
BT / Wi-Fi
Android/Linux/
Windows
* Wi-Fi Direct

* Support
forthcoming

Java
C++
JavaScript

Service
Device

Routing
Multi-Threading
Data Marshalling
Ad-hoc networks

Language
Bindings

Simple
Discovery

Transport/ OS
Agnostic

Managed
Networking

Sessions
Lower Latency
Point to Multipoint
Raw-Data

Performance Optimizations

Fueling Innovation and Enabling New User

Experiences

SOCIAL
APPLICATIONS

INFORMATION
EXCHANGE

GROUPWARE

MULTIPLAYER
GAMING

P2P AUGMENTED
REALITY

PROXIMITY-BASED
MEDIA
SERVICES
ENTERTAINMENT
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Why Develop AllJoyn?

Simplify and extend device
inter-communication
capabilities
Always-on always-connecting
Fuel new and creative
application usage models
OS independent platform for
peer-to-peer innovation

An Open Source
Project

Seed the peer-to-peer

application ecosystem
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AllJoyn Open Source Project: www.alljoyn.org

Launched Jan. 2011
GitHub hosts source
Apache 2.0 License
Documentation
SDK
Tools
Contribute
Download
Forums

Architecture Concepts

Architecture Overview
AllJoyn is a distributed software bus

Each device runs a bus daemon

Applications communicate directly only with the daemon
Daemons on each device communicate with daemons on other
devices
Daemons do message routing and namespace management

Bus formation is ad hoc

Based on proximal discovery

Abstracts multiple discovery mechanisms

Protocol is transport independent

Ground-up implementation of the DBus wire-protocol with extensions

Supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth currently
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Why the Dbus Wire Protocol?

Why reinvent the wheel?

www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/dbus

IPC mechanisms used on many Linux distributions

Deeply integrated with system services and session management

Supports RPCs as well as unicast and multicast events

Object oriented

Objects, interfaces, methods, and properties

Language neutral

Bindings for C, Java, Python, Perl, etc.

Message bus architecture

RPC and events implemented as messages

Daemon handles messaging routing between clients
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DBus Compatibility
Peer sessions

Service
Advertisement
& Discovery

Distributed
Bus
Management

Object model
Authentication
&
Encryption

Wire-protocol

Client-bus
authentication
Header
Compression

Routing rules

DBus Compatibility

Signals

Remote
procedure call

Introspection

Message
Expiration (TTL)

Device-to-device
message
routing

Name space
Raw Session
support

Topology
management
Bluetooth

WiFi

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Message Types and Properties

1.
2.
3.
4.

Signalsasynchronous event broadcast, multicast, or point-to-point

Method Callscall portion of an RPC
Method Repliesreturn portion of an RPC
Errorserror response to an RPC

Serial numberfor matching method replies to method calls

Senderautomatically inserted by AllJoyn
Destinationnull for broadcast or multicast messages
Object-pathpath to an object
Interfaceinterface name implemented by named object
Membermethod name or signal name
Signaturespecifies argument types for data payload
Session IDfor device-to-device communication
Payloaddescribed by the signature
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Bus Attachments, Objects, Proxy Objects

An application needs a Bus Attachment to communicate with the bus

Bus Attachments provide a root (/) for the object hierarchy

Bus Objects implement interfaces

Bus Objects path names look like file paths, e.g. /org/AllJoyn/Games/chess

Bus Object have methods than can be called remotely

Bus Objects can emit signals

Proxy Bus Objects are local representations of remote Bus Objects

Applications use proxy bus objects to make method calls to remote objects

Application

Application

Bus Attachment

Event
handler

Bus Attachment

Proxy
Object

Bus

Bus
Object
Tree

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Distributed Software Bus

Device 1

TCP or Bluetooth
Local socket

App X

App Y

Daemon

Device 2
App X

Daemon

Conceptually peers are

applications, not devices.
Applications communicate
with a local daemon.
Daemons handle routing
between devices.

Device 3
App Y

App Z

Daemon

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Ad-hoc Bus Formation

Device
Client App

Device

Daemon

Find-Name
request

Find-Name
request

Service App

Eureka!

Daemon

Actual discovery mechanism is transport dependent:

On Wi-Fi a lightweight IP multicast protocol.
On Bluetooth device discovery with EIR and SDP query.
On Wi-Fi-Direct TBD.
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Ad-hoc Bus Formation

Device

Device

Client App

Service App

Peer Session
Daemon

Distributed Bus

Daemon

Once connected, daemons form single bus with shared namespace

-

Peers can discover when other peers join or leave bus

Peers can make RPC calls and send and receive events
Session reference counting keeps device-to-device connections alive
Multicast events can be sent to all peers in the session
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Security Framework

Security Framework
Authentication and encryption is app-to-app:

The bus is not involved other than to route.

Trust relationship established between the applications.
Device pairing not required unless the transport requires it.
In case of Bluetooth, AllJoyn does not normally trigger pairing.

Security is enabled per-interface:

Authentication and key exchange initiated on demand.

Security-enabled interface:

Authentication is required to make method calls.

Authentication required to receive signals.

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Security ModelAuthentication and Encryption

Key
Store

AllJoyn
Application

Signals from a
security-enabled
interface are
encrypted and
authenticated

Key
Store

AllJoyn
Application

Method calls to security-enabled

interface are encrypted and
authenticated. If call encrypted,
so is reply

AllJoyn
Application

AllJoyn
Distributed Bus

Key
Store

Application can
allow a mix of
security-enabled
and non-secure
interfaces.
Maintain own key
storecan
use password

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Built-in Authentication Mechanisms

Three mechanisms supported

Mechanism negotiated using SASL protocol

Application developer chooses which mechanism to use
Algorithms adapted from TLS protocols per RFC 5246

Pin-code

Authentication with a single-use password

Trust relationship is persistent

Logon

User name and password type

Password required every time peers connect

Certificate-based

RSA public key authentication and X.509 certificates

Trust relationship lasts while certificate valid
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Encrypted Message
Endian flag
Version #
Flag bits
Message type

Serial #
Header length
Authenticated
header

Body length

Header fields
0-7 bytes

Body length
bytes

Indicates
message is
encrypted

Zero padding

The header and the body are

authenticated using AES-CCM .

The body (payload) is encrypted.

The header is required for routing, so

is authenticated but not encrypted.

Structurally an encrypted message

still conforms to the DBus
specification.

Body

Authentication
field

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Performance Considerations

Message Efficiency
Time to live:

Added for multi-player games and streaming where stale data is useless.
Mainly applies to signals.
Introduces a new message header field.
Expired messages are silently discarded.

Header compression:

Significantly reduces the size of message headers.

Intended for messages that are sent frequently.
Allows short messages to fit into single-slot Bluetooth packets.

Multipoint sessions:

Bounds the scope of broadcast signals to session members.

Provides mechanism for deciding when radios are no longer in use.
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Direct Point-To-Point Bulk Data Exchange

Raw Sessions

Process

Removes overhead by providing

direct access to underlying socket

1. AllJoyn sets up a peer-to-peer

normal session

Application can read/write any

data to the socket

2. Peers call daemon to obtain the

file descriptor for socket
3. Daemon returns open file
descriptors to peers, closes
session
4. Session is gone but sockets
remain open

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Code Snippets

Language Bindings

Native implementation for AllJoyn is C++

Java binding is available for Android
Binding for JavaScript is under development
Considering bindings for C, Python, and Lua
Object model is similar for all bindings

Create a BusAttachment to connect to the bus

Create BusInterfact(s) that will be implemented by BusObjects
Create and register BusObject(s) with the BusAttachment
BusObjects handle remote method calls and emit Signals
Applications call methods on remote objects using
ProxyBusObjects
Applications register Signal handlers with BusAttachment
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AllJoyn Hello World in Java*

import org.alljoyn.bus.BusException;
import org.alljoyn.bus.annotation.BusInterface;
import org.alljoyn.bus.annotation.BusMethod;
/*
* This interface implements a simple echo method that returns the same string
* that is receives.
*/
@BusInterface
public interface EchoInterface {
/*
* Echo a string.
*
* inStr is the string to be echoed by the service, returns the echoed string.
*/
@BusMethod(signature="s, replySignature="s")
public String Echo(String inStr) throws BusException;
}
* Code snippets licensed under the Apache License, version 2.0 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
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The Echo Service*

public class Service implements EchoInterface, BusObject {
public static void main(String[] args) {
/* Create a bus connection and connect to the bus */
BusAttachment bus = new BusAttachment(Service.class.getName());
bus.connect();
/* Register the service */
Service service = new Service();
bus.registerBusObject(service, "/myobject");
/* Request a well-known name */
try {
bus.RequestName("org.alljoyn.echo", REQUEST_NAME_NO_FLAGS);
} catch (BusException ex) {return;}
/* Echo until told to stop */
while (!stop) { Thread.currentThread().sleep(10000); }
}
/* Implementation of the echo method */
public String Echo(String inStr) {
return inStr;
}}
* Code snippets licensed under the Apache License, version 2.0 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
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The Echo Client*

public class Client {
public static void main(String[] args) {
/* Create a bus connection and connect to the bus */
BusAttachment bus = new BusAttachment(Client.class.getName());
bus.connect();
/* Get a remote object */
Class[] ifaces = { EchoInterface.class };
ProxyBusObject proxyObj = bus.getProxyBusObject("org.alljoyn.echo", "/myobject", ifaces);
EchoInterface proxy = proxyObj.getInterface(EchoInterface.class);
/* Call the ping method on the remote object */
try {
String ret = proxy.Echo("Hello World");
System.out.println(Echo returned: " + ret);
} catch (BusException ex) {
return;
}
}
}

* Code snippets licensed under the Apache License, version 2.0 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
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Summary
Easier P2P Development

Open Source Sponsored

by QulC

OS and platform independent

Launched January 2011

Multiple language bindings

SDK download and forums

at www.alljoyn.org

Multiple transports

Sourced code available on

GitHub at
www.github.com/alljoyn

Download SDK

Download Source Code

Contribute
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Questions?

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Disclaimer

QUALCOMM Innovation Center, Incorporated

5775 Morehouse Drive
San Diego, CA. 92121-1714
U.S.A.
Copyright 2011 Qualcomm Innovation Center, Incorporated.
All rights reserved.

Not to be used, copied, reproduced in whole or in part, nor its contents revealed in any manner to others without the express
written permission of Qualcomm.
Qualcomm and Uplinq are trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States.
ALLJOYN is a trademark of Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc.
Other product and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Nothing in these materials is an offer to sell any of the components or devices referenced herein. Certain components for use in
the U.S. are available only through licensed suppliers. Some components are not available for use in the U.S.

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