It is important to understand the buzzwords used so that confusion is avoided. The devices and programs within a federation are called resources. A resource offers a service. A service can be storage, communication, computation, or anything that a resource can do. The Jini infrastructure consists of the base software required to build a Jini federation.
Resources find services in the federation using the lookup service.
The entries in this lookup database are Java interfaces. Once discovered, the resource will register its services with the lookup service. It is built on top of Java's built-in security mechanisms. They can be programmed to do any task suitable of the resource. These services are mobile and intelligent moving from machine to machine executing where and when required.