A federation is a group of computing or network providers agreeing upon standards of operation in a collective fashion.
The term may be used when describing the inter-operation of two distinct, formally disconnected,
telecommunications networks that may have different internal structures. The term "federated cloud" refers to facilitating the interconnection of two or more geographically separate
computing clouds.
The term may also be used when groups attempt to delegate collective authority of development to prevent
fragmentation
Fragmentation or fragmented may refer to:
Computers
* Fragmentation (computing), a phenomenon of computer storage
* File system fragmentation, the tendency of a file system to lay out the contents of files non-continuously
* Fragmented distributi ...
.
In a telecommunication interconnection, the internal ''
modi operandi
A ''modus operandi'' (often shortened to M.O.) is someone's habits of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations, but also more generally. It is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode (or manner) of op ...
'' of the different systems are irrelevant to the existence of a federation.
Joining two distinct networks:
*
Yahoo!
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...
and
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
announced that
Yahoo! Messenger and
MSN Messenger would be interoperable.
Collective authority:
*The
MIT X Consortium
The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems.
X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting wit ...
was founded in 1988 to prevent fragmentation in development of the
X Window System
The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems.
X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting wit ...
.
*
OpenID, a form of
federated identity.
In networking systems, to be federated means users are able to send messages from one network to the other. This is not the same as having a client that can operate with both networks, but interacts with both independently. For example, in 2009,
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
allowed
GMail users to log into their
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) accounts from GMail. One could not send messages from
GTalk
Google Talk was an Instant messaging, instant messaging service that provided both text and voice communication. The instant messaging service was variously referred to colloquially as Gchat, Gtalk, or Gmessage among its users.
Google Talk was ...
accounts or
XMPP
Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP, originally named Jabber) is an open communication protocol designed for instant messaging (IM), presence information, and contact list maintenance. Based on XML (Extensible Markup Language), it ...
(which Google/GTalk is federated with—XMPP lingo for federation is ''s2s'', which
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
and
MSN Live's implementations do not support) to AIM screen names, nor vice versa.
In May 2011, AIM and Gmail federated, allowing users of each network to add and communicate with each other.
See also
*
Fediverse
The fediverse (a portmanteau of "federation" and "universe") is an ensemble of Federation (information technology), federated (i.e. interconnected) servers that are used for web publishing (i.e. social networking, microblogging, blogging, or websit ...
*
Federated Mission Networking
Federated Mission Networking (FMN) is a significant initiative to help ensure interoperability and operational effectiveness of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, it is a key contribution to the Connected Forces Initiative, helping Allied and ...
*
Federated database system A federated database system (FDBS) is a type of meta-database management system (DBMS), which transparently maps multiple autonomous database systems into a single federated database. The constituent databases are interconnected via a computer netwo ...
*
Distributed social network
A distributed social network or federated social network is an Internet social networking service that is decentralized and distributed across distinct service providers (similar to email, but for social networks), such as the Fediverse or the Ind ...
*
Federated Portal Network
*
Federated VoIP
*
Webmention
Webmention is a W3C recommendation that describes a simple protocol to notify any URL when a website links to it, and for web pages to request notifications when somebody links to them. Webmention was originally developed in the IndieWebCamp comm ...
*
MX record
A mail exchanger record (MX record) specifies the mail server responsible for accepting email messages on behalf of a domain name. It is a resource record in the Domain Name System (DNS). It is possible to configure several MX records, typically p ...
, *
SRV record: Ways of designating what services domains provide and how to access them
*
Active Directory Federation Services Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS), a software component developed by Microsoft, can run on Windows Server operating systems to provide users with single sign-on access to systems and applications located across organizational boundaries. ...
*
ActivityPub: Introduced in January 2018, ActivityPub is a standard for the Internet in the Social Web Networking Group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
*
Usenet
Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it was ...
*
Distributed computing
A distributed system is a system whose components are located on different computer network, networked computers, which communicate and coordinate their actions by message passing, passing messages to one another from any system. Distributed com ...
*
Decentralized computing
References
Interoperability
Interoperable communications
Networking standards
Computer standards
Distributed computing
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