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An Overview of WCF Features

Interoperability and integration of diverse APIs are only two (very important) aspects of WCF. In

addition, WCF provides a rich software fabric that complements the remoting technologies it

exposes. Consider the following list of major WCF features:

• Support for strongly typed 

as well as untyped messages. This approach allows .NET applica-

tions to share custom types efficiently, while software created using other platforms (such as

J2EE) can consume streams of loosely typed XML.

• Support for several bindings (raw HTTP, TCP, MSMQ, and named pipes) to allow you to

choose the most appropriate plumbing to transport message data to and fro.

• Support for the latest and greatest web service specifications (WS-*).

• A fully integrated security model encompassing both native Win32/.NET security protocols

and numerous neutral security techniques built upon web service standards.

• Support for sessionlike state management techniques, as well as support for one-way state-

less messages.

As impressive as this list of features may be, it really only scratches the surface of the function-

ality WCF provides. WCF also offers tracing and logging facilities, performance counters, a publish

and subscribe event model, and transactional support, among other features.