article

Free access

Customization and composition of distributed objects: middleware abstractions for policy management

Authors:

Gul A. AghaAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, Volume 23, Issue 6

Pages 1 - 9

https://doi.org/10.1145/291252.288206

Published: 01 November 1998 Publication History

Abstract

Current middleware solutions such as CORBA and Java's RMI emphasize compositional design by separating functional aspects of a system (e.g. objects) from the mechanisms used for interaction (e.g. remote procedure call through stubs and skeletons). While this is an effective solution for handling distributed interactions, higher-level requirements such as heterogeneity, availability, and adaptability require policies for resource management as well as interaction. We describe the Distributed Connection Language (dcl): an architecture description language based on the Actor model of distributed objects. System components and the policies which govern an architecture are specified as encapsulated groups of actors. Composition operators are used to build connections between components as well as customize their behavior. This customization is realized using a meta-architecture. We describe the syntax and semantics of dcl, and illustrate the language by way of several examples.

References

[1]

AGHA, G. Actors: A Model of Concurrent Computation. MIT Press, 1986.

Digital Library

[2]

AGHA, G., FRP)LUND, S., KIWI, W., PANWAR, R., PAT- TERSON, A., AND STURhfAN, D. Abstraction and modularity mechanisms for concurrent computing. IEEE Parallel and Distributed Technology (May 1993).

Digital Library

[3]

ALLEN, R., AND GARLAN, D. Formalizing architectural connection. In International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE '94) (1994), IEEE Computer Society, pp. 71-80.

Digital Library

[4]

ASTLEY, M. An actor semantics for componentbased software. Tech. rep., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, March 1998. Available at : http://osl.cs.uiuc.edu/'m-astle.

[5]

CLEMENTS, P. C. A survey of architecture description languages. In Eighth International Workshop on Software Specification and Design (Paderborn, Germany, March 1996).

Digital Library

[6]

HOARE, C. Communicating sequential processes. Communications of the ACM 21,8 (August 1978), 666677.

Digital Library

[7]

HUTCHINSON, N. C., AND PETERSON, L. L. The xkernel: An architecture for implementing network protocols. IEEE tinsactions on Software Engineering 17, 1 (January 1991), 64-75.

Digital Library

[8]

LUCKHAM, D. C., KENNEY, J. J., AUGUSTIN, L. M., VERA, J., BRYAN, D., AND MANN, W. Specification and analysis of system architecture using Rapide. IEEE tinsactions on Software Engineering 21, 4 (1995), 336-355. Special Issue on Software Architecture.

Digital Library

[9]

OBJECT MANAGEMENT GROUP. CORBA services: Common object services specification version 2. Tech. rep., Object Management Group, June 1997. Available at http://www.omg.org/corba.

[10]

SHAW, M., DELINE, R., KLEIN, D. V., Ross, T. L., YOUNG, D. M., AND ZELESNIK, G. Abstractions for software architecture and tools to support them. IEEE tinsactions on Soflware Engineering (April 1995).

Digital Library

[11]

STURMAN, D. C. Modular Specification of Interaction Policies in Distributed Computing. PhD thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, May 1996.

Digital Library

[12]

TALCOTT, C. An actor rewriting theory. In Workshop on Rewriting Logic (1996), vol. 4 of Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science.

[13]

TALCOTT, C. Interaction semantics for components of distributed systems. In First IFIP workshop on Formal Methods for Open Object-based Distributed Systems (FMOODS '96) (Paris, France, March 1996).

[14]

THE JAVA TEAM. RMI specification. Available at ftp://ftp.javasoft.com/docs/jdkl.l/rmi-spec.ps.

[15]

TOMLINSON, C., CANNATA, P., MEREDITH, G., AND WOELK, D. The extensible services switch in Carnot. IEEE Parallel and Distributed Technology 1, 2 (May 1993), X-20.

Digital Library

[16]

VAN RENESSE, R., BIRMAN, K. P., FRIEDBIAN, R., HAYDEN, M., AND KARR, D. A. A framework for protocol composition in horus. In Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual ACM Symposium on Principles of Disttibuted Computing (August 1995).

Digital Library

Cited By

Agha GCharalambides MMechitov KPalmskog KSandur AShiftehfar R(2018)Theoretical Considerations: Inferring and Enforcing Use Patterns for Mobile Cloud AssuranceAssured Cloud Computing10.1002/9781119428497.ch7(237-276)Online publication date: 20-Dec-2018
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119428497.ch7
Agha G(2014)Actors Programming for the Mobile CloudProceedings of the 2014 IEEE 13th International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Computing10.1109/ISPDC.2014.31(3-9)Online publication date: 24-Jun-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/ISPDC.2014.31
Dinges PAgha G(2012)Scoped synchronization constraints for large scale actor systemsProceedings of the 14th international conference on Coordination Models and Languages10.1007/978-3-642-30829-1_7(89-103)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-642-30829-1_7
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Customization and composition of distributed objects: middleware abstractions for policy management
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language types
        Object oriented languages

Recommendations

Customization and composition of distributed objects: middleware abstractions for policy management
SIGSOFT '98/FSE-6: Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGSOFT international symposium on Foundations of software engineering

Current middleware solutions such as CORBA and Java's RMI emphasize compositional design by separating functional aspects of a system (e.g. objects) from the mechanisms used for interaction (e.g. remote procedure call through stubs and skeletons). While ...
QoS customization in distributed object systems
Special issue: Middleware

Applications built on networked collections of computers are increasingly using distributed object platforms such as CORBA, Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI), and DCOM to standardize object interactions. With this increased use comes the increased ...
Customization and Composition of Distributed Objects: Policy Management in Distributed Software Architectures

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes

ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes Volume 23, Issue 6

Nov. 1998

248 pages

ISSN:0163-5948

DOI:10.1145/291252

Chairmen:
Leon J. Osterweil
Univ. of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst
,
William L. Scherlis
Carngie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA

Issue’s Table of Contents

SIGSOFT '98/FSE-6: Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGSOFT international symposium on Foundations of software engineering
November 1998
248 pages
ISBN:1581131089
DOI:10.1145/288195
Chairmen:
Leon J. Osterweil
Univ. of Massachusetts at Amherst
,
William L. Scherlis
Carngie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA

Copyright © 1998 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 November 1998

Published in SIGSOFT Volume 23, Issue 6

Check for updates

Qualifiers

Article

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

30
Total Citations
View Citations
535
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)59
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)14

Reflects downloads up to 19 Nov 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Agha GCharalambides MMechitov KPalmskog KSandur AShiftehfar R(2018)Theoretical Considerations: Inferring and Enforcing Use Patterns for Mobile Cloud AssuranceAssured Cloud Computing10.1002/9781119428497.ch7(237-276)Online publication date: 20-Dec-2018
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119428497.ch7
Agha G(2014)Actors Programming for the Mobile CloudProceedings of the 2014 IEEE 13th International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Computing10.1109/ISPDC.2014.31(3-9)Online publication date: 24-Jun-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/ISPDC.2014.31
Dinges PAgha G(2012)Scoped synchronization constraints for large scale actor systemsProceedings of the 14th international conference on Coordination Models and Languages10.1007/978-3-642-30829-1_7(89-103)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-642-30829-1_7
Loques OSztajnberg ALeite JLobosco M(2001)On the Integration of Configuration and Meta-level Programming ApproachesReflection and Software Engineering10.1007/3-540-45046-7_11(189-208)Online publication date: 6-Jul-2001
https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45046-7_11
Fortino GRusso W(2012)ELDAMethInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2011.08.00654:6(608-624)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.infsof.2011.08.006
Dinges PAgha G(2012)Scoped synchronization constraints for large scale actor systemsProceedings of the 14th international conference on Coordination Models and Languages10.1007/978-3-642-30829-1_7(89-103)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-642-30829-1_7
Agha GVarela C(2010)Worldwide Computing MiddlewareThe Practical Handbook of Internet Computing10.1201/9780203507223.ch38Online publication date: 31-Jan-2010
https://doi.org/10.1201/9780203507223.ch38
Donkervoet BAgha G(2007)Reflecting on Aspect-Oriented Programming, Metaprogramming, and Adaptive Distributed MonitoringFormal Methods for Components and Objects10.1007/978-3-540-74792-5_11(246-265)Online publication date: 2007
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74792-5_11
Donkervoet BAgha G(2006)Reflecting on aspect-oriented programming, metaprogramming, and adaptive distributed monitoringProceedings of the 5th international conference on Formal methods for components and objects10.5555/1777707.1777723(246-265)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1777707.1777723
Basso ABoltov ABasukoski AGetov VHenrio LUrbanski M(2006)Specilfication and Verilfication of Rleconfiguration Protocols in Grid Comnponent Systemns2006 3rd International IEEE Conference Intelligent Systems10.1109/IS.2006.348461(450-455)Online publication date: Sep-2006
https://doi.org/10.1109/IS.2006.348461
Show More Cited By

View Options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Issue’s Table of Contents