What is TNS?
Titus Notification Service (TNS) is a universal notification service that allows for the publication of and subscription to events. Events may be public or private. They are accessed and delivered via any networked device. Once an event is published, subscribers may request to be notified of the occurrence of these events. Events may be based on user-defined criteria, including time and location. When the event occurs, they will be notified via any networked device they have at their disposal (e.g., cell, fax, Palm Pilot, pager, web, email, computer, etc.).
How Can I Use TNS?
Applications of TNS technology are almost unlimited. Users tend to fall into two primary categories: Commercial and Non-Commercial. Sometimes these categories overlap.
Commercial Applications
Supplier Scenario - A supplier of a product or service can make their services available via public events to a very large audience. Suppose a product is going on sale sometime next month. The supplier can publish an event that describes this product sale. Once the event is published, anyone with access to the TNS Network can choose to be notified when the sale has begun. In addition, a POS register can notify shoppers of a sale when they enter the proximity of the shopping mall.
Note that this is NOT purely so-called “push” notification. Only those interested in the sale will be notified of the sale. This de-coupled architecture benefits the supplier because they are notifying only those who have expressed interest in the sale – these potential customers are much more likely to buy than anyone blindly notified via more conventional mechanisms like newspaper advertising. The subscriber is benefited because they really are interested in this information – it is not rammed down their throat at dinnertime by uninvited telephone solicitations. And the service provider (you) is not bound to a particular platform or set of servers.
Supply Chain Scenario – Suppose a commercial enterprise has contracted Titus Corporation to integrate TNS technology into their order entry and inventory management systems. A customer places an order, but it is unavailable due to an out-of-stock condition. Once the item is delivered, TNS notifies the Order Entry system and the order can resume the fulfillment process.
Safety-Critical Scenario – Suppose a train is moving along a track. Sensors detect a weakness in a rail several miles down the track. TNS technology is used to alert the train of the situation in time. Suppose a factory manufactures products using steam. Once a pressure gauge or temperature rises to an unsafe level, TNS notifies all personnel that a dangerous threshold has been passed. Note that the subscribers do not have to be present at the time and that they may be notified by any and all available notification mediums (beyond just the shop floor alarm). Therefore, nearby rescue services may also be notified automatically.
Theft Attempt Scenario – You have an alarm system at home that is supposed to notify the alarm company or the authorities when an unauthorized access attempt is detected. Wouldn’t you also like to be notified? TNS can provide this service in addition to the alarm company’s services.
Call Center Scenario – Normally, call centers accept calls and place them on queues for the next available customer service representative. TNS can be integrated at the switch level to alert management when certain accounts call in.
Weather Scenario – Suppose a hurricane or tornado watch is in effect. Normally, one can be notified of these events via more traditional means such as TV and/or radio. But suppose neither of these mediums are available at the time the watch is put into effect. If you have at your disposal other means of communication, TNS can notify you via a pager, a Palm Pilot or a cell phone.
Non-Commercial Applications
Personal Calendar Scenario – Can your day-timer notify you of an upcoming event using any and all (wireless or otherwise) mediums at your disposal from any platform? TNS can be used to place all of your contact information in one location so you don’t have to have it spread across several different applications.
Baby Announcement Scenario – When the baby is born, notify all friends & family using whatever networked devices they have at their disposal.
Where’s My Child? – Normally, my wife is at home to greet my boys. But today, neither of us will be available. TNS is set up to notify me when he gets within 50 feet of our home. My daughter is a teenager. I wonder where she is at 11:00 tonight? TNS can tell me.
Auction Scenario – Suppose you want information about an auction item as soon as it drops below a certain level. As soon as it does, you wish to purchase it (at least that’s how you felt when you joined the auction!) Some applications may provide this specialized capability, but they require a commitment up front to purchase the item when the event occurs. What if you’ve changed your mind since then? TNS optionally allows for the suspension of an event occurrence. You can decide at the time of the event whether or not to proceed.
Cancelled Flight Scenario – Cancelled flights inconvenience more than the traveler – they often affect other people interested in the timely arrival of a passenger. You can choose to call the airline to get updated flight status information, but wouldn’t you rather them contact you? If they used TNS technology, they could keep you up-to-date more efficiently than you can. Your time is now freed up instead of waiting on the phone or constantly polling the status.
Lost Child Emergency Scenario – Suppose your child slips away from your sight momentarily and is lost. You publish a “lost person” event and the TNS Network immediately notifies any authorities, as well as sending out a beacon to the child’s networked device (provided they carry one), notifying you back when a location is discovered.
Organ Donor Scenario – TNS can be used to notify any interested parties when an organ becomes available.
These applications only begin to scratch the surface of the possibilities offered by TNS technology.
How TNS Works
TNS provides access to published lists of events categorized by areas of interest. These may be private lists (i.e., your own calendar of events) or public lists (those who voluntarily or for a fee make their events available to the public at large). Publishers can make their events available via categories or they may create new categories. Registered customers are able to subscribe to be notified of these events when and / or where they occur.
Platforms Supported
TNS Event Channels may be operated programmatically using a variety of programming languages and protocols, which are growing continuously[1]. The following languages and protocols are currently supported, or are to be supported soon:
C/C++
Java
SOAP
XML
HTTP (next release)
HTTPS (next release)
Bluetooth (coming soon)
COM (coming soon)
CORBA (coming soon)
JMS (coming soon)
RMI (coming soon)
TCP/IP (coming soon)
WAP (coming soon)
3G (as technology matures)
802.11b (as technology matures)
GPRS (as technology matures)
GSM (as technology matures)
Infrared (as technology matures)
OSGi (as technology matures)
Ada (depending on demand)
HIPERLAN (depending on demand)
JINI (depending on demand)
OAMAS (depending on demand)
RDP/IP (depending on demand)
UDP/IP (depending on demand)
The TNS event engine runs beneath all supported APIs (e.g., JMS, Jini) and above all transport protocols (e.g., 3G). In some cases, the transport layers also require an API (e.g., TCP/IP). We believe and are fully committed to supporting open standards. That is why these standard APIs are supported, and many more will be implemented in the future. However sometimes, supporting standard specifications can be “overkill” to get a capability up and running quickly, without a large learning curve. In addition, some APIs and target devices are dependent on particular platforms or programming languages (e.g., COM, JMS, JINI, RMI). There may also be associated runtime licensing fees that prohibit economical large-scale deployment. That is why we provide a much simpler additional proprietary API[2]. The TNS API is consistent across all platforms, languages and protocols.
TNS is built from the ground up to support operation on a wide array of devices ranging from conventional desktop computers to PDAs, cell phones and credit cards. These technologies are constantly changing. It is clear that supporting these various APIs and platforms involves significant investment in resources that your organization may not wish to undertake. This is another of the ‘value-added’ upside of going with TNS technology.
TNSä Product & Service Offering Options
1. On-line Service – The only equipment required to operate TNS is one or more networked devices. As clients, they access TNS services either locally or via the TNS Network. They use categories to browse or pair down searches for an event or a type of event of interest. Note that the publisher may be unaware of the identity of the subscriber. The primary benefit of this configuration is ease of use and maintenance-free, optionally secure service.
2. Private Server – “Just Say No” to Foreign Hosting. In some cases, people or organizations want complete control over their TNS events, including the hosting environment and the persistent data. In this case, they host a private TNS server on their computer(s). In this configuration, the Publisher can know the identity of the subscriber because they control the server. The benefit of this configuration is complete control over the operation of the server as well as security, etc.
3. Business-to-Business (B2B) Product Integration – A service to integrate TNS technology into existing business systems. In this configuration, business systems may communicate via an application programming interface (API). This allows disparate systems the ability to communicate events between each other in either a synchronous or an asynchronous manner using message queues or asynchronous notification. This configuration can make use of either the TNS Network or a private TNS Server.
TNSä Products & Services
Titus Corporation produces a variety of products that are integrated with TNS technology. Please visit our Products page for more information.
TNSä Product Prices
|
Product or Service |
Use |
Description |
Initial Price |
Annual Renewal (optional) |
|
Node TNSä |
Commercial |
TNS operating on and priced by each operational server node |
$ call |
$ call |
|
Transaction TNSä |
Commercial |
TNS priced by individual messages delivered |
$ call |
$ call |
|
Client TNSä |
Non-Commercial / Commercial |
TNS priced by individual clients on which TNS client capability is delivered |
$ call |
$ call |
|
Enterprise TNSä |
Commercial |
TNS servers deployed on an unlimited number of internal TNS hosts |
$ call |
$ call |
TNSä Definition of Terms
|
Term |
Definition |
|
Event |
A piece of information that will occur (possibly more than once) at some future time or location |
|
TNS Community |
All TNS Subscribers, plus anyone able to access TNS via the World-Wide Web or other networks |
|
Publisher |
Any person or organization that creates or makes available an event |
|
Subscriber |
Any person or organization that wishes to be notified of the occurrence of an event |
|
TNS Network |
A suite of TNS clients and servers distributed over a variety of networks (e.g., Internet, satellite network, wireless networks) |
|
TNS Client |
A machine or device able to receive notification from and otherwise communicate with TNS servers. Such a device may or may not also be a TNS server, depending on the capabilities of the device. |
|
TNS Server |
A machine or device running TNS server-side software. This basically manages the event service and is responsible for storing & retrieving published events and matching them with subscribers. |
|
Private Event |
An event made available to your own private TNS Community |
|
Networked Device |
Any network-enabled device such as a computer, cell phone, fax, pager, email, voice mail, etc. Note that this covers all “wired” as well as wireless technologies |
|
Public Event |
An event made available to the entire TNS Community |
Contact Information
See our Contacts page.