JXTA (Juxtapose) is an open source peer-to-peer protocol specification begun by Sun Microsystems in 2001. Sun remains actively involved in the development and promotion of JXTA. The JXTA protocols are defined as a set of XML messages which allow any device connected to a network to exchange messages and collaborate independently of the underlying network topology. JXTA is the most mature general purpose P2P framework currently available and was designed to allow a wide range of devices - PCs, mainframes, cell phones, PDAs - to communicate in a decentralized manner.
As JXTA is based upon a set of open XML protocols, it can be implemented in any modern computer language. Implementations are currently available for Java Platform, Standard Edition, C/C++/C# and J2ME. The C# Version uses the C++/C native bindings and is not a complete re-implementation in its own right.
JXTA peers create a virtual overlay network which allows a peer to interact with other peers even when some of the peers and resources are behind firewalls and NATs or use different network transports. In addition, each resource is identified by a unique ID, a 160 bit SHA-1 URN in the Java binding, so that a peer can change its localization address while keeping a constant identification number.
