In this chapter, we will explore Trident topologies. Trident provides a higher-level abstraction on top of Storm. Trident abstracts away the details of transactional processing and state management. Specifically, Trident provides batching of tuples into a discrete set of transactions. Additionally, Trident provides abstractions that allow topologies to perform operations on the data such as functions, filters, and aggregations.

We will use the sensor data as an example to gain a better understanding of Trident. Often, the sensor data forms streams that are read from many different locations. Some traditional examples include the weather or traffic information, but the pattern extends to a wide range of sources. For example, applications that run on cell phones generate a plethora of event information. Processing event streams from phones is another instance of sensor data processing.

The sensor data contains events emitted by many devices, often...