Next Generation Node (NGN) Technical Overview April 2007

NGN In a Nutshell Adjust to ever increasing flow complexity. Position ourselves for the future of the EN (technical/business needs). Explicit Technical Goals –Achieve real vendor independence. –Support existing and future EN specification versions. –Create a pluggable framework for dataflows. –Improve scalability.

NGN In a Nutshell (cont.) Implicit Technical Goals –Improve the user experience (auditing/statistics). –Improve quality of service (error handling/auditing). –Develop a versatile solution for all EN use cases (states/tribes/CDX/program offices).

NGN in a Nutshell (cont.)

Architecture Robust suite of core services. –Transaction/Document management. –Task scheduling. –XML signature/encryption. –Auditing. –Data transformation (i.e. publishing).

Architecture (cont.) Simplified architecture –Changes Web Archive (WAR) packaging instead of Enterprise Archive (EAR). –Lowest common denominator for deployment. –Conducive to deploying on different application servers. Use simple Remote Method Invocation (RMI) construct for services. –Reduces the amount of platform specific details, as opposed to typical Enterprise Java Beans (EJB) implementation. –Use of Spring framework for transaction management to further reduce platform dependence.

Architecture (cont.) Simplified Architecture (cont.) –Changes (cont.) Decouple Web Services and core implementation. –Support existing and future EN specifications. –Benefits Easier to scale (HTTP fail-over). Easier to configure for multiple platforms. Easier to plug in new dataflows and new core services. Easier to publish data.

Architecture (cont.)

Platform Examples –Application servers: Weblogic, Jboss, Tomcat (Oracle implementation on the way). –Databases: MySQL, Oracle, HSQLDB. –Operating Systems: Windows, Linux. Techniques –Inversion of Control (IoC) Utilize Spring framework (open source). Separate business logic and platform details. Push platform specific content into configuration.

Platform (cont.) Techniques (cont.) –Object Relational Mapping (ORM) Utilize Hibernate (open source). Abstract away database specifics using configurable dialects. Package database schemas for popular offerings.

Design Workflow oriented –Addresses trend of more complex dataflows. Deconstruct logic into a series of logical actions. Easier to develop, easier to maintain. –Lightweight enough for simple dataflows. Simple XML based configuration. –Creates a robust framework for auditing, error handling, and state management.

Design (cont.) Example configuration

Model Improved domain model –Runtime configurable system properties. Adds needed flexibility for day-to-day operations. –Richer Document/Transaction metadata. –Improved handling of binary payloads. Pure streaming approach. Can store documents in database or on the file server (configurable).

User Interface Completely redone administration interface –Improved auditor Search on more criteria. Search for documents. –Built in statistics Charts/graphs of node activity. Exportable results.