sec-xmpp.tex

   1 \subsection{XMPP}
   2 \pages{3-4}
   3
   4 The \term{Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)} is a distributed,
   5 XML-based protocol for real-time communication. Its core functionalities are
   6 specified in RFCs~6120~\cite{rfc6120} and RFC~6122~\cite{rfc6121}, while protocol
   7 extensions are usually defined by the XMPP community in \term{XMPP Extension
   8 Proposals (XEPs)}.
   9
  10 \subsubsection{Addressing}
  11
  12 Every user account in XMPP is addressed by a globally unique identifier, called
  13 the \term{Jabber ID (JID)}~\cite{rfc6122}. It has the form
  14 \code{localpart@domainpart/resource}, where \code{domainpart} is the DNS name of
  15 an XMPP server, and \code{localpart} is the name of a user account on that
  16 server. Since a user can be logged in from multiple clients, the \code{resource}
  17 part is a string chosen by the user to distinguish those clients. Only the part
  18 \code{localpart@domainpart} (the \term{bare JID}) is needed to identify a user,
  19 the resource is only needed for routing between client and server.
  20
  21 \subsubsection{Architecture}
  22 \begin{wrapfigure}{r}{0.4\textwidth}
  23 %\begin{figure}[htop]
  24   \centering
  25   \includegraphics[width=0.4\textwidth]{fig-xmpp-architecture-mock.jpg}
  26   \caption{XMPP architecture}
  27   \label{fig:xmpparch}
  28 %\end{figure}
  29 \end{wrapfigure}
  30
  31 The original architecture underlying XMPP strongly leans on the established
  32 design of Internet Mail, and an example is depicted in Fig.~\ref{fig:xmpparch}.
  33 The distributed network is formed by \term{XMPP servers} on one hand, which make
  34 up the always-on backbone of the network used for routing message, and manage
  35 user accounts and statuses. On the other hand, \term{XMPP clients} represent a
  36 single logged-in user and are the interface for communication with other users.
  37
  38 Every client communicates only with the server that manages the respective user
  39 account which is configured in the client, as given in the user's JID. The
  40 server then routes the messages to their recipients, using the JID to determine
  41 the correct server for a message to be sent to. Finally, the receiving server
  42 sends the message to a client where the receiving JID is logged in. If the user
  43 is not logged in at the time the message is sent, the server can store it for
  44 the user and deliver it on the next login.
  45
  46 XMPP strongly relies on DNS Service Discovery (see Section~\ref{sec:dnssd}) to
  47 determine the server being in charge of a domain. For example, the server who
  48 manages the users for the domain \code{example.org} is given by the SRV record
  49 \code{\_xmpp-server.\_tcp.example.org}.
  50
  51 \subsubsection{Communication primitives}
  52
  53 All communication over XMPP is based on XML. To minimize communication overhead,
  54 only fragments of XML, called \term{stanzas}, are sent between hosts. A stanza
  55 is always well-formed as a whole; it consist of a root element, which also
  56 includes routing attributes (\code{to} and \code{from}), and its optional child
  57 elements.
  58
  59 On top of that, living connections between hosts are represented by \term{XML
  60 streams}. The client initiates a connection by sending an XML declaration
  61 followed by an opening \code{<stream>} tag. The server then responds also with
  62 an opening \code{<stream>} tag. The client then performs SASL authentication and
  63 binds its stream to a resource for proper addressing. If this process succeeded,
  64 both client and server can send an unlimited number of stanzas, until the
  65 connection is closed by one side by sending an closing \code{</stream>} tag. The
  66 other side then has the chance to send all outstanding stanzas and likewise
  67 closes its stream. If both streams are closed, the underlying TCP connection is
  68 terminated.
  69
  70 \todo[Example stream]
  71
  72 \subsubsection{Publish/Subscribe and Presence}
  73
  74 Typically, a user wants to chat with a more or less fixed set of other users,
  75 whose JIDs she needs to know, so she needs some kind of ``address book'' that
  76 remembers the JIDs for her. In XMPP, this is address book is called
  77 \term{roster}, and it also shows the users' willingness to chat (``presence'').
  78 In order to see their chat status (which can be  one of ``online'', ``offline'',
  79 and several ``away'' or ``do not disturb'' states), a user needs to subscribe to
  80 the other user's status. The mechanism behind this is called
  81 \term{Publish-Subscribe} and is specified in XEP-0060~\cite{xep0060}. It can
  82 be used to notify interested users about changes in personal information, and
  83 implements the classic Observer pattern.
  84
  85 A user publishes information by creating a \term{node} on the XMPP server, which
  86 acts as a handle for the data. Interested users can then query the server for
  87 nodes, and request subscription to them. When the owner of the node confirms the
  88 subscription request, subscribers get notified whenever the owner updates the
  89 respective node.
  90
  91 All communication takes place between the client and the server over \code{<iq>}
  92 (``information query'') stanzas.
  93
  94 \subsubsection{Multi-User Chats}
  95
  96 Besides one-to-one messaging, XMPP also allows users to create multi-user
  97 chat rooms, which is specified in \cite{xep0045}. Each chat room is given a
  98 unique JID to which the users send their messages to. Each incoming message is
  99 then dispatched to all users which have joined the room.
 100
 101 To join a room, the user sends a \code{<presence>} stanza to the room JID, where
 102 the resource part of the room JID specifies the desired nick name.
 103
 104 \subsubsection{XMPP Serverless Messaging}\label{sec:xsm}
 105 \pages{1}
 106
 107 To overcome the need for a central server and authentication, XMPP Serverless
 108 Messaging~\cite{xep0174} allows XMPP clients on a network to build a
 109 peer-to-peer mesh network and chat directly with each other. This feature was
 110 first introduced by Apple as part of their \term{Bonjour} project, and nowadays
 111 it is also available in many other XMPP clients.
 112
 113 With XMPP Serverless Messaging, XMPP clients simply open a port on the host, and
 114 then rely on mDNS and DNS-SD (see Section~\ref{sec:dns})
 115 to publish instance names in the domain \code{\_presence.\_tcp.local}. For
 116 example, if Juliet uses her machine (named \code{capulet}) with serverless
 117 messaging, her client would publish the following four mDNS records:
 118
 119 \begin{itemize}
 120   \item an A record \code{capulet.local}, specifying her IP address,
 121   \item an SRV record \code{juliet@capulet.\_presence.\_tcp.local}, specifying
 122     the port on which her XMPP client listens, and refering to
 123     \code{capulet.local} as the host name
 124   \item a PTR record \code{\_presence.\_tcp.local} for service discovery,
 125     pointing to \code{juliet@capulet.\_presence.\_tcp.local}
 126   \item and a TXT record \code{juliet@capulet.\_presence.\_tcp.local} specifying
 127     more information about her (e.~g. her online status, contact data, etc.)
 128 \end{itemize}
 129
 130 When other clients in the same network enumerate the available services by
 131 querying \code{\_presence.\_tcp.local}, they notice Juliet's presence and add
 132 her to the roster automatically. In that way, XMPP users can see who is
 133 currently available for communication. To start a chat session, clients initiate
 134 a TCP connection over the advertised ports, open their XML streams, and send
 135 message or IQ stanzas like they would to an XMPP server. Presence is managed
 136 over the corresponding TXT record in the mDNS. To go offline, a client
 137 announces the deletion of its mDNS records.
 138
 139 % vim: set ft=tex et ts=2 sw=2 :