Federation Protocol for Multi-Source Context

Federation Use Cases

Enterprise context often spans multiple systems. Federation enables unified queries across distributed sources without centralizing all data. ECM Protocol defines federation standards.

Federation Architecture

Federator Component

Central federator receives queries. Decomposes into source-specific subqueries. Executes subqueries in parallel. Aggregates and returns unified results.

Source Registration

{
  "source_id": "crm-context",
  "endpoint": "https://crm.example.com/ecm/v1",
  "capabilities": {
    "context_types": ["customer-context", "opportunity-context"],
    "query_features": ["filter", "projection", "sort"]
  },
  "authentication": {
    "type": "oauth2",
    "token_endpoint": "https://auth.example.com/token"
  }
}

Query Decomposition

Query Planning

{
  "federated_query": {
    "context_types": ["customer-context", "order-context"],
    "filter": {"customer_id": "cust-123"}
  },
  "plan": {
    "subqueries": [
      {"source": "crm-context", "types": ["customer-context"]},
      {"source": "order-context", "types": ["order-context"]}
    ],
    "join": {"type": "union", "key": "customer_id"}
  }
}

Push-Down Optimization

Push filters to sources when supported. Push projections to reduce transfer. Push sorting when source supports it. Execute unsupported operations at federator.

Result Aggregation

Aggregation Strategies

Union for combining same-type context. Join for relating different types. Merge for combining partial records. Deduplicate for overlapping sources.

Conflict Resolution

{
  "conflict_resolution": {
    "strategy": "source_priority",
    "priority": ["crm-context", "legacy-context"],
    "field_rules": {
      "email": {"strategy": "most_recent"},
      "name": {"strategy": "primary_source"}
    }
  }
}

Fault Tolerance

Partial Results

Return available results when sources fail. Include source status in response. Let client decide on partial data. Configurable fail-fast vs. best-effort.

Timeout Handling

{
  "timeout": {
    "per_source": 5000,
    "total": 10000,
    "on_timeout": "return_available"
  }
}

Caching

Federated Cache

Cache federated results at federator. Cache source results individually. Invalidate on source change notifications. Configurable TTL per source.

Conclusion

The Federation Protocol enables unified context access across distributed sources. Implement query decomposition, result aggregation, and fault tolerance for robust federated context retrieval.

> Federation Protocol for Multi-Source Context