Institute of Computer Science

Department of Mathematics and Computer Science

Algorithms and Programming IV

Remote Invocation:
Remote Method Invocation (19-1)
Summer Term 2020 | 24.06.2020
Claudia Müller-Birn, Barry Linnert
Middleware Layers

Applications, services

Remote invocation:
Request-Reply Protocols, Remote Procedure Calls Middleware
layers
Underlying inter-process communication

UDP and TCP

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Our Topics Today
• Properties of Remote Object Invocation

• Implementation of RMI

• Java RMI

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Remote Call Variantes
Remote procedure call (RPC)
• A procedure is called (typically part of a module) for procedural languages (e.g.,
Modula, C)
• Also for heterogeneous infrastructures, e.g. Distributed Computing Environment
(DCE)

Remote object invocation (ROI)

• For object-oriented languages (e.g., Java, C++, C#), where an operation/method
of an object is called.
• In Java it is called Remote Method Invocation (RMI) and in C# ".NET Remoting"
• Also for heterogeneous infrastructures, e.g. CORBA
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Commonalities of ROI and RPC
• Support of programming languages with interfaces.

• Both are typically constructed on top of the request-reply protocol and it offers a
number of call semantics (exactly once, at most once, and at least once).

• Offer a similar level of transparency, means local and remote calls employ the
same syntax, but remote interfaces expose the distributed nature for example by
supporting remote exceptions.

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 Remote invocation
REMOTE OBJECT INVOCATION

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Remote and Local Method Invocation

remote local C
E
invocation invocation local
invocation remote
invocation F
A B local
invocation D

Remote object reference: Other objects can invoke the methods of a remote object
if they have access to its remote object reference.

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Remote Object Reference

The remote object reference is an identifier for a remote object that is valid
throughout the distributed system. It is passed in the invocation message to specify
which object is to be invoked.

32 bits 32 bits 32 bits 32 bits

Internet
port number time object number interface of
address remote object

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Remote and Local Method Invocation

remote local C
E
invocation invocation local
invocation remote
invocation F
A B local
invocation D

Remote object reference: Other objects can invoke the methods of a remote object
if they have access to its remote object reference.

Remote interface: Every remote object has a remote interface that specifies which of
its methods can be invoked remotely.

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A Remote Object and its Remote Interface

remoteobject

Data
remote
interface
m1 m4

{
implementation m5
m2
of methods m6
m3

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Instantiation of Remote Objects

remote local C
E
invocation invocation local
invocation remote
invocation F
A B local
invocation D

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Instantiation of Remote Objects

remote local C
E
invocation invocation local
invocation remote
invocation F
A B local
invocation D

L
remote
remote
invocation instantiate instantiate
invocation K
C M N

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Exceptions
• Any remote invocation may fail for reasons related to the invoked object being in a
different process or computer from the invoker.

• Remote method invocation should be able to raise exceptions such as timeouts

that are due to distribution as well as those raised during the execution of the
method invoked.

• Exceptions provide a clean way to deal with error conditions without complicating
the code. In addition, each method heading explicitly lists as exceptions the error
conditions it might encounter, allowing users of the method to deal with them.

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