[Opensim-dev] Revising the grid standards (Part I - Principles)

[Adam Frisby]

This is going to be the first of two emails, this one's containing some 
of the principles needed for a revised grid protocol, the next one will 
contain some sample ideas for specific implementation details.

The problems with the grid code right now:

1. It's centralised - has no chance whatsoever of scaling.
2. It cant decide whether it wants to be REST, XMLRPC or Remoting.
3. It's a mess, has issues with concurrent requests and locking and the
    server code needs a general overhaul.
4. It doesn't support any kind of real authentication or security.
5. Linking grids together is not really feasible without sharing
    servers.

In these respects, it's about on-par with what the Linden Grid does 
right now. While everyone has recognised it's been temporary - it's 
probably about now we should be replacing it with something better.

So, let's nail this one down - we need a revised standard that has the 
following features:

Core:
	1. Secure - maintains authentication and hashes of important
	   (all?) messages so that impersonating a fraudulent request
	   is possible.
	2. All requests should use URI's instead of IP/Port
	   combinations.
	3. No abitrary split of services (eg Asset, User, Grid)
	   simply make: "this provides the following features:
		* user login
		* asset download"
	4. One protocol to rule them all, be it SOAP, REST, XMLRPC or
	   a sink-neutral remoting implementation. (remoting + scale?)
	5. Users / Regions should be represented as a URI so they can
	   be sent to other grids without too much hassle.
	6. Some comms may require a higher speed serialiser,
	   we should use URI's where possible to specify which is in
	   use. (eg tcp:// vs soap://)

Optional:
	1. Region control / administration - the same protocol should be 	 
usable on the region server to do things such as send restart
	   commands.
	2. Use a URI / Capability for handling secure requests (needs to
	   be combined with SSL/TLS - will need a CA setup for people
	   who don't want to buy certs [Root CA -> Grid -> Region?])