JINI BENEFITS
Device Agnosticism
Jini is agnostic with regard to devices. What does this mean for users of home networks? Essentially it means that Jini is designed to support a wide variety of entities that can participate in a community. These "entities" may be devices or software or some combination of both. If a hardware device is connected to a home network, Jini is flexible about how much computational power it needs to have. Jini can work with a full-blown multimedia computer capable of running multiple Java Virtual Machines connecting with each other at gigabit speeds. It can also work with such devices as PDAs and cell phones that may have only limited Java capabilities. In fact, Jini is actually designed to accommodate devices that are so simple they may have small amounts or no computational intelligence—a light switch for instance. Furthermore, and this may be somewhat surprising, Jini doesn't even require that the home networking service be written in or understand the Java language. All that is required is that some Java-speaking device on the home network is willing to act as a proxy on behalf of the Java-challenged device or service.
Simplicity
Jini technology is all about simplifying interactions with a home network. The Java platform started it, now Jini technology furthers it. Simplification means improved productivity, cost savings, and ease-of-use. Jini technology will allow you to use the network as easily as using a phone. Sun has portrayed Jini as a simple way for devices to find and use each other over a network. Plug a Jini-enabled digital camera into a network, for example, and it sends a Java agent to the network's lookup service and announces itself. The camera is now an object, and a user interface pops up on your PC or television set. Take a picture, and you can store it on the Jini-enabled disk drive you've just plugged into your digital set-top box. No configuration hassles or device drivers is one of Jini's principles.
Reliability
I have already said in a previous section that Jini provides the infrastructure that allows services to find and use one another on a home network. So is Jini simply a name server like the Internet's DNS? As it turns out, Jini does have similarities with a name server; however, there are two essential differences between what Jini does and what simple name servers on the Internet do.
Communities of Jini services are largely self-healing. This is a key property built into Jini from the ground up; Jini doesn't make the assumption that in-home networks are perfect, or that software never fails. Given time, the system will repair damage to itself. Jini also supports redundant infrastructure in a very natural way, to reduce the possibility that services will be unavailable if key A/V or computer devices fail.
As mentioned, Jini supports serendipitous interactions among services and users of those services. That is, services can appear and disappear to other Jini participants in a very lightweight way. Jini supports what might be called "spontaneous networking"—services that are close to one another that form a community automatically, with no need for explicit user involvement. This means that users of home networking technologies do not have to edit configuration files, shut down or restart name servers, or configure gateways to use a Jini service. You literally just plug it in and Jini does the rest.
Taken together these properties ensure that home based Jini communities are virtually administration free.
Making Life Easier
Jini technology gives users a unique, more convenient option for accessing the services in their neighborhood and the world at large. With Jini software, a laptop or home computer can join the local community of services offered by neighborhood retailers. Rather than drive to your local instant-copy store, you might simply access its services application from your home computer that has joined the local Jini technology network. You tell it what you want copied and where to deliver the job; it takes care of the rest.
Reduced Cost of Ownership
Self-managing devices reduce further the need for expert help, and this should lower the total cost of ownership for Jini-connection-technology-based systems.
Ease of Development
Because Jini technology is based on the Java platform, any existing development tool that can be used for Java software development can be used for Jini software development. In addition, utility classes and implementations are being developed that will be freely available, which will ease the development of services and clients using Jini technology.
Small Footprint
The code required to implement Jini technology is so small that all types of home appliances can use it, from lamps and coffee makers to dishwashers and water heaters.