At the centre of ODEXplus is the distributor that allows all core services to operate and user requests to be serviced.
The distributor can be visualised as an intelligent data store that supports client requests, which might be communications protocol drivers, user application system interfaces or management control systems.
The distributor is responsible for accessing all system files. Each I/O request is passed to the distributor to ensure total data file integrity within the ODEXplus system. As an extra security feature each trading partner's data is held in isolation, which improves performance and allows additional data areas to be defined and assigned for use by particular trading partners.
This allows for future expansion but also provides the capability to assign a dedicated file area to a particularly heavy user.
The amount of user intervention is kept to a minimum with the distributor maintaining its own 'work to do' list in which the system and communications actions are scheduled and executed.
Figure: Overall OFTP System Architecture
The communications drivers that handle OFTP communications interface with the low-level network drivers and also the distributor for ODEX system requests. The driver can handle any low-level network protocol because the network services manager hides the intricacies of the protocol from the communications driver. When validation of credentials is required the OFTP driver passes the request onto the distributor to ensure centralised administration.
The system can be scaled to meet the current requirements of the system operator. The number of simultaneous sessions that ODEX supports and the number of OFTP drivers that handle these sessions can be specified by the user and tailored to current requirements.
As the number of users of the system grows there will typically be an increase in the number of background applications that are interfacing with it. The number of user connections can be tailored to meet any administration requirements.
