Appspace Deployment Architecture
Deployment Topology
The following diagram illustrates the typical network topology for an Appspace installation.
Data Flow
- Media players will be installed with the Appspace Player Engine that is responsible for reading the application data and rendering the visual elements on screen.
- It is also responsible to implement content scheduling, interactive behavior and perform any data integration.
- The engine also checks with Appspace for any content changes and initiates a content download (HTTP Port 80) from the Appspace server whenever there are new content changes.
- All of this happens in the background and does not effect the running application on screen.
- The Appspace server is typically hosted in a central data center or in an enterprise network.
- All media player endpoints in the branches or in the network will communicate (always initiated from media player outgoing towards Appspace) to the Appspace server via Port 80 / HTTP via Proxies (if required).
- Users of Appspace will need network connectivity to the Appspace server (via HTTP Port 80) to manage content and applications.
- The Appspace server must have internet connectivity to retrieve weather forecast data and external data such as RSS feeds.
- A central SmartHub ASE may optionally be placed in the data center to integrate with any centralized systems such as the CRM (Jazz/Siebel).
- Custom plugins on the SmartHub ASE can be developed to retrieve/integrate with the central external systems.
- At the branch network, another local SmartHub ASE can optionally be deployed to integrate with the services local to the branch such as a Queue Management System.
Network Ports and Firewall Rules
Workstation to Appspace
Port: HTTP (80)
Description
- User access to Appspace to manage applications, upload content, and monitor player devices.
- Access using modern web browser (FireFox, Chrome, Safari) with Adobe Flash 10.0 Plugin or newer.
- User must add appspace.com to list of trusted websites and enable pop-ups from this URL.
- Network firewall and Proxy server must allow access to Appspace domain URL/IP.
Workstation to Cisco DMP4310 or DMP 4400
Port: HTTPS (443)
Description
- A system administrator requires HTTPS access to the Cisco DMP to configure its network properties and register the device with an Appspace application.
- The system administrator will use a modern web browser (FireFox, Chrome, Safari) with Adobe Flash 10.0 Plugin or newer, and Java Runtime 6 or newer to configure the DMP.
Workstation to Edge 300 or Edge 340
Port: SSH (22)
Description
- A system administrator requires SSH access to configure the EDGE-300/340 and register it with Appspace.
- The EDGE-300/340 wizard tool runs on Windows OS (Windows XP, Windows 7), Microsoft .Net 4.0 runtime.
Devices to Appspace
Port: HTTP (80)
Description
- Background agents on media player devices connect to Appspace
- Network firewall and proxy server(s) must allow access to Appspace domain URL/IP.
Devices to Valid NTP Server
Port: UDP (123) ICMP
Description
- All Cisco devices requires access to a valid NTP server to sync its system clock.
- This can be an internal network NTP server or a public NTP server on the pool.ntp.org domain name.
- Network firewall and/or proxy server(s) must allow access to a selected NTP server.
Web Proxy
Clients must state if outgoing connections to the Internet needs to be done via a local web/HTTP proxy on the network. If so, details of the web proxy such as the IP address, Port Number, credentials (if the proxy uses authentication) are required. If the proxy uses an access control list to limit the connection to only trusted websites, the proxy at the minimum must be configured to permit Internet connection to the following websites:
- World Weather Online (www.worldweatheronline.com) – Mandatory if weather forecasts for countries outside the US
- WDT INC (www.wdtinc.com) – Mandatory if weather forecasts are within the US
- RSS Sources (various URLs) – Mandatory if applications are using RSS widgets