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-rw-r--r--content/en/docs/Overview/_index.md26
1 files changed, 25 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/content/en/docs/Overview/_index.md b/content/en/docs/Overview/_index.md
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@@ -45,10 +45,34 @@ Some of the main characteristics are:
ECN](/docs/concepts/protocols/). This immutability can be enforced
through authentication (not yet implemented).
+* Ouroboros has _external_ and _dynamic_ server application
+ binding. Socket applications leave it to the application developer
+ to manage binding from within the program (typically a bind() call
+ to either a specific IP address or to all addresses (0.0.0.0),
+ leaving all configuration application (or library-) specific. When
+ shopping for network libraries, a typical questions are "can it bind
+ to multiple IP addresses?".
+
+ Ouroboros makes all this management external to the program: server
+ applications only need to call flow_accept(). The _bind()_ primitive
+ allows a program (or running process) to be bound from the command
+ line to a certain (set of) service names and when a flow request
+ arrives for that service, Ouroboros acts as a broker that hands of
+ the flow to any program that is bound to that service. Binding is
+ N-to-M: multiple programs can be bound to the same service name, and
+ programs can be bound to multiple names. This binding is also
+ _dynamic_: it can be done while the program is running, and will not
+ disrupt existing flows.
+
+ In addition, the _register()_ primitive allows external and dynamic
+ control over which network a service name is available over. Again,
+ while the service is running, and without disrupting existing flows.
+
* The Ouroboros end-to-end protocol performs flow control, error
control and reliable transfer and is implemented as part of the
_application library_. This includes sequence numbering, ordering,
- sending and handling acknowledgments, managing flow control windows, ...
+ sending and handling acknowledgments, managing flow control windows,
+ ...
* Ouroboros can establish an encrypted flow in a _single RTT_ (not
including name-to-address resolution). The flow allocation API is a