in a co2-network, hosts [satellites] communicate through a central server [relay] - and optionally, through relay-cascading, with other co2-networks.

co2 facilitates the standardized exchange of control-data between different applications, regardless of their nature, purpose, content or plattform. applications [local engines] can be programms running directly on the satellite machine or any external application connected to the satellite through some periphery.

data sent by a satellite is passed on to all other satellites by the relay. it is completely up to each satellite [and it's engine/s] what to receive from the network, what to send to it, and how / if input and output are interdependent.

all communication within a co2-network is based on xmlrpc [xml-formatted methodcalls over http]. the reference implementation in python comes with a simple and documented API, has a plugin-architecture and is published [as is the co2-protocol] under the gpl. ports to other programming languages should be quite simple to implement.