An Investigation into the Applicability of Node.js as a Platform forWeb Services

Abstract: This study investigates the applicability of node.js for developing web services.Node.js is a software platform for developing event-driven networking applicationsusing JavaScript. Moreover, the language JavaScript is discussed regardingfeatures that facilitate development of event-driven software.Node.js’s selling point is to be a solution to the problem of massive amount ofconcurrent network connections. In addition, it tries to avoid scalability issuesthat may appear in large web applications. To verify and investigate if this holds,an evaluation of the platform was conducted by developing an HTTP boot serverfor Motorola Mobility. The boot server, named Wellington, is used to manageconfiguration and distribution of set-top box software.Furthermore, an investigation and comparison between event based and threadedconcurrency models has been made. Lastly, the maturity of node.js and its ecosystemof libraries and frameworks are discussed.In conclusion, node.js is an interesting piece of technology and it was suitableas development platform for Wellington. JavaScript is a powerful language andworks well to write event-driven server-side software. When learning to buildnetworking applications, node.js is a good start to do so using an event-drivenparadigm.