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PSYC : Technical Details

The PSYC architecture is made of three parts: The routing layer MMP, the PSYC messaging layer and the conference control module on top of those. MMP is the Modular Message Protocol, it's a simple carrier protocol for the PSYC packets which therefore do not need to get parsed and understood by simple MMP routers and proxies. The Conferencing Module is a particularely elaborate approach in steering chatrooms and online conferences in general - it is an extension to MMP.

PSYC itself operates end-to-end, leaving routing and multicast issues to the lower layers. PSYC and MMP share a common syntax, which looks unusual compared to traditional text-based protocols, but has advantages in its abilities to get compressed and to be semantically extended. It is important to understand, that the architecture is totally different. You could at best see it as something in-between IRC and XMPP, but that's still quite a simplification.

In theory, servers dictate how users and groups want to be treated, from then on clients communicate with each other according to the rules set up by the servers, optionally using routers, proxies or complex multicast infrastructures as transport media. This is why PSYC conference control can be very well applied to audio/video conferences, too. The actual data is still spread using the appropriate realtime protocols. The current real situation has servers relaying for their users a lot, however. But that doesn't mean we won't become more peer-to-peer-capable later on. The protocol is prepared to go that extra step. There is no central database whatsoever, the system works in a worldwide decentralized fashion like e-mail or the web. 














Specifications in progress.


MMP - the Modular Message Protocol.

PSYC - Method Names of PSYC Objects.

Common Keyword Naming strategy

and Variable Modifiers for PSYC and MMP.

psyc: Uniform Network Locator Scheme.





Other Materials on PSYC.


The huge about.psyc.eu site 
documents both the current state of PSYC and a wealth of plans and ideas
where to go from here.

IRC vs. PSYC -
Conference Control Comparison Chart.

NEW: IRC+ and PSYC,
how Timo Sirainen of irssi fame
comes to the same conclusions as ours.

Discussion with
Gerrit Hiddink from WWCN.
























Further Readings.




  • Related Work.

  • Information about IRC - Web pages about the IRC.

  • The DCC - Direct Client Communication protocol allows IRC clients to have direct TCP links between each other.
For negotiation the CTCP - ClientToClient Protocol is used, which is a set of encoded messages sent over IRC.

  • Undernet's Channel Service

  • Undernet introduction to bots
- These two show you how IRCers are getting around the problem
of not having permanently owned channels in the first place.



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