Overview

JEROME - or the Java-based Engine for Real-time Online Multiuser Environments, is designed as a heterogeneous parallel virtual machine, or grid, specifically for real-time applications.

Goals

The overall goals of the JEROME project (in no particular order) are as follows:

• Cross-platform - To allow for a completely heterogenous node network
• Standard - To use industry-standard technologies to connect and administer the nodes
• Simplicity - To maintain the simplicity of the codebase
• Independence - To be as implementation-independent as possible
• Fault-tolerance - To handle faults and load in realtime, without failure
• Reliability - To minimize or eliminate downtime for configuration or implementation changes
• Scalability - To be scalable, and meet the needs of all applications
• Speed - To be as transparent to message processing and communication latency as possible.

In-depth

The JEROME architecture is a framework for creating realtime applications that benefit from a dynamic grid model. Each node is given one of four major tasks. These tasks are the four main aspects of the realtime processing enviroment: the interface or gateway, the event processor or context, the database, and the background or ambient processor. Any number of these nodes are dynamically connected to eachother to form a realtime processing unit that dynamically distributes the processing load over nodes of the same type, and communicates via standard networks.