An application is using Messaging to make remote procedure calls (RPC’s) or transfer documents.
How can the caller be sure that exactly one receiver will receive the document or perform the call?
Send the message on a Point-to-Point Channel, which ensures that only one receiver will receive a particular message.
A Point-to-Point Channel ensures that only one receiver consumes any given message. If the channel has multiple receivers, only one of them can successfully consume a particular message. If multiple receivers try to consume a single message, the channel ensures that only one of them succeeds, so the receivers do not have to coordinate with each other. The channel can still have multiple receivers to consume multiple messages concurrently, but only a single receiver consumes any one message.
... Read the entire pattern in the book Enterprise Integration Patterns
Related patterns:
Command Message, Competing Consumers, Document Message, Message, Message Channel, Messaging, Publish-Subscribe Channel, Request-Reply