Selena

High-Performance Inter-Process Communication for .NET

Features • Getting Started • Documentation • Benchmarks • Contributing

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🚀 Overview

Selena is a zero-dependency, high-performance C# library for inter-process communication (IPC) using Memory-Mapped Files. It enables real-time message exchange between processes with minimal latency and maximum throughput.

✨ Key Features

• 🎯 Zero Dependencies - Pure C# implementation, no external libraries required
• 🌍 Cross-Platform - Works on Windows, Linux, and macOS
• ⚡ High Performance - Up to 600+ MB/s throughput with microsecond latency
• 🔒 Thread-Safe - Built for concurrent multi-threaded scenarios
• 📦 Multiple .NET Versions - Supports .NET 6/7/8 and .NET Standard 2.0/2.1
• 🛡️ Type-Safe - Generic message serialization with built-in type safety
• 🔄 Automatic Recovery - Handles process crashes and reconnections gracefully
• 📊 Real-Time Monitoring - Built-in performance metrics and diagnostics

📋 Requirements

• .NET 6.0+ or .NET Standard 2.0/2.1 compatible runtime
• Windows 7+, Linux (kernel 2.6.22+), or macOS 10.12+
• Administrator privileges for Global scope (Windows only)

🚀 Getting Started

Installation

Install via NuGet Package Manager:

dotnet add package Selena

Or via Package Manager Console:

Install-Package Selena

Quick Example

using Selena.API;

// Create a channel
using var channel = new SelenaChannel("MyChannel");

// Subscribe to messages
channel.MessageReceived += (sender, e) =>
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Received: {e.GetMessageText()}");
};

// Start listening
channel.Start();

// Send a message
await channel.SendMessageAsync("Hello from Selena!");

Advanced Usage

// Configure advanced options
var config = new SelenaConfig
{
    ChannelName = "AdvancedChannel",
    BufferSize = 10 * 1024 * 1024,  // 10MB buffer
    OverflowStrategy = OverflowStrategy.Overwrite,
    ScopeMode = ScopeMode.Local,     // No admin required
    PollingInterval = 5,             // 5ms for Linux/macOS
    EnableJsonLogging = true
};

using var channel = new SelenaChannel(config);

// Send typed objects
var order = new Order { Id = 123, Total = 99.99m };
await channel.SendObjectAsync(order, messageType: 1);

// Receive typed objects
channel.MessageReceived += (s, e) =>
{
    if (e.Message.Header.MessageType == 1)
    {
        var receivedOrder = e.GetMessageObject<Order>();
        Console.WriteLine($"Order #{receivedOrder.Id}: ${receivedOrder.Total}");
    }
};

🏗️ Architecture

graph TB
    subgraph "Process A"
        A1[SelenaChannel] --> A2[Sender]
        A2 --> A3[CircularBuffer]
        A3 --> A4[Memory-Mapped File]
    end
    
    subgraph "Shared Memory"
        A4 <--> MMF[Memory Region]
    end
    
    subgraph "Process B"
        B4[Memory-Mapped File] --> B3[CircularBuffer]
        B3 --> B2[Receiver]
        B2 --> B1[SelenaChannel]
        B4 <--> MMF
    end

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📊 Performance Benchmarks

Benchmarks performed on Intel Core i7-10700K, 32GB RAM, NVMe SSD:

Message Size	Messages/sec	Throughput	Latency (μs)
64 bytes	1,200,000+	73 MB/s	< 1
1 KB	680,000+	664 MB/s	1-2
4 KB	170,000+	665 MB/s	5-6
16 KB	42,000+	656 MB/s	20-25

Comparison with Other IPC Methods

Method	Throughput	Latency	CPU Usage
Selena	600+ MB/s	< 25μs	Low
Named Pipes	200 MB/s	50μs	Medium
TCP Loopback	300 MB/s	100μs	High
gRPC (local)	150 MB/s	200μs	High

🛠️ Configuration Options

Option	Description	Default	Notes
ChannelName	Unique channel identifier	Required	Must be unique per channel
BufferSize	Shared memory size	1 MB	Minimum 1 KB
OverflowStrategy	Buffer full behavior	Overwrite	Overwrite or Block
ScopeMode	Windows IPC scope	Local	Local (user) or Global (system)
PollingInterval	Unix polling interval	10 ms	Lower = more responsive
MaxWaitTime	Operation timeout	5000 ms	For blocking operations

📚 Examples

Check out the examples directory for complete samples:

Example	Description	Run Command
Simple	Basic send/receive	dotnet run --project examples/Selena.Examples.Simple
Chat	Multi-process chat	dotnet run --project examples/Selena.Examples.Chat -- Alice
Benchmark	Throughput testing	dotnet run --project examples/Selena.Examples.Benchmark
Object	Type-safe messaging	dotnet run --project examples/Selena.Examples.Object
Stress	High-load scenarios	dotnet run --project examples/Selena.Examples.Stress

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guide for details.

Development Setup

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Taiizor/Selena.git
cd Selena

2. Build the project

dotnet build

3. Run tests

dotnet test

4. Run benchmarks

dotnet run -c Release --project tests/Selena.Benchmarks

📝 Documentation

• API Reference
• Architecture Overview
• Performance Tuning
• Troubleshooting
• Migration Guide

🛣️ Roadmap

• Named pipe fallback for unsupported systems
• Compression support for large messages
• Encryption for sensitive data
• Distributed tracing integration
• Unity/Godot engine support
• Web Assembly (WASM) compatibility

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Inspired by various IPC libraries across different platforms
• Thanks to all contributors who have helped shape Selena
• Special thanks to the .NET community for feedback and support

📞 Support

• 🐛 Issues: GitHub Issues
• 📖 Wiki: GitHub Wiki
• 💬 Discussions: GitHub Discussions

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Made with ❤️ by the Selena Community