A Week of Design

The work on R3CI continues. In the previous week, my partner and I transformed an abstract idea of problems that R3CI would solve into a solidified set of problems. The next step is to take each component specified and flesh out a design and implementation. The first component on the list is the communication system and protocol.

The week was spent pondering on implementation, efficiency, and most importantly, implementation. The protocol at its lowest level is handled by TCP, where the rest of the R3CI protocol is layered on top of. The data being transferred takes form as JSON, due to its simplicity and the wide availability of parser libraries for every mainstream language¹. This also implies that all data will be sent as text. This simplifies the system, although images must be encoded in base64 to be sent over the protocol. This will be interesting due to the conversion time, and how data may be inflated. Communication types will be dynamic, as the protocol will support database fetch/set, image identification, communication, and along with a system in place to add a custom subset to the protocol. In conclusion, the protocol should provide one necessary component to the R3CI system.