Application of Peer-to-Peer Network for Real-Time Online Collaborative Computer-Aided Design

Abstract

The Internet has revolutionized the way software systems work. Many applications, such as online games and instant messengers, have utilized Web-related technologies to cooperate over the Internet. Recently, some researchers have utilized Web-related technologies in computer-aided design to allow real-time collaboration between users over the Web. All these systems are based on the client-server model. In this kind of collaborative design environment, the system grouping, operation, and communication all have to rely on the central server. In order to improve accessibility and flexibility in collaborative design and to provide a more load-balanced and extensible environment, this paper presents a prototype implementation of collaborative design tools based on a peer-to-peer (P2P) model. The users can conveniently form design groups by connecting directly to each other, anytime and anywhere, without the presence of a central server. All peers are equal in functionalities and computing loads. In addition, application level multicast (ALM) technology is adopted in the proposed system to improve efficiency in Internet communication. Based on the P2P network model and ALM communication scheme, several mechanisms are proposed in this paper to form a working model of this system. Then, the object model design and implementation of this P2P system is presented.