Distributed Object-Based System : CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture )

CORBA was developed by the OMG (Object Management Group) The Object Request Broker (ORB) forms the core of any CORBA distributed system. It has the following Horizontal (User & System Support) facilities User interface Information management System management Task management It has Vertical (application support) facilities in the application domain such as as electronic commerce, banking, manufacturing

CORBAs Interface with Other Services All CORBA specifications are given by means of interface descriptions, expressed in an Interface Definition Language (IDL). An interface is a collection of methods, and objects specify which interfaces they implement. It provides a precise syntax for expressing methods and their parameters.

The General Architecture of a CORBA System.

CORBA Architecture

Standard Interface

Per-Object Type Generated Interface

ORB Dependent Interface

Client

Object Implementation

Interface Repository

Dynamic Invocation

IDL Stubs

ORB Interface

Static IDL Skeleton

Dynamic Skeleton

Implementatio Repository Object Adapter

ORB core

CORBA Basic Architecture

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As a distributed objects architecture, it resembles to the RMI architecture: Logically an object client makes method calls to distributed objects. An object client interfaces with a proxy a stub while the object implantation interfaces with the server-side proxy a skeleton CORBA is not bound to a particular programming language and hence an interface definition language (IDL) has been introduced. IDL is an universal language with a distinct syntax Though the syntax of CORBA IDL resembles to Java and C+ +, an object defined in a CORBA IDL file can be implemented in a large number programming languages, including C, C++, Java, COBOL, Smalltalk, Ada, Lisp, Python, and IDL Script

Language Independence in CORBA

For each of these languages, OMG has a standardized mapping from CORBA IDL to the programming language A compiler can be used to process a CORBA interface to generate the proxy files Object clients can be written in any of the CORBAcompatible languages.

Inter-ORB Protocols Cross-language, cross-vendor interoperability is achieved via the Internet Inter-ORB Protocol, or IIOP. IIOP is a transport protocol for distributed applications written in either IDL or Java RMI. To allow ORBs to be interact and operate, the OMG specified a protocol known as the General Inter-ORB Protocol(GIOP) GIOP protocol specification provides a general framework to be built on top of specific transport layers IIOP is a special case of GIOP to make use of the TCP/IP transport layer.

Object Bus

An ORB which adheres to the specifications of the IIOP may interoperate with any other IIOP-compliant ORBs over the Internet. This gives rise to the term object bus, where the Internet is seen as a bus that interconnects CORBA objects

The IIOP specification includes the following elements: Transport management requirements which specifies the connection and disconnection requirements for the object client and object server Definition of common data representation: a coding scheme for marshalling and un-marshalling data of each IDL data type. Message formats: Formats for different types of send/receive messages are defined. The messages allow clients to send requests to object servers and receive replies.

The Object Management Group (OMG) is a consortium created to set common standards for distributed object-oriented systems and develop enterprise integration standards for a wide range of technologies The modelling standards belonging to the OMG include: Unified Modelling Language (UML) Model Driven Architecture (MDA) Systems Modelling Language (SysML) Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) OMGs middleware standards are based on the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) OMG has also developed a core set of standards adapting CORBA for embedded and real-time systems

Object Management Architecture

Object Request Broker (ORB) component that enables clients and objects to communicate in a distributed environment. In CORBA, the Object Request Broker or ORB takes care of all of the details involved in routing a request from client to object, and routing the response to its destination. The ORB guarantees portability and interoperability of objects over a network of heterogeneous systems

An Object Request Broker (ORB) provides a communication infrastructure for invoking operations on objects It enables to perform the operation transparently with respect to where they are located on the network, the types of hardware and operating system platforms on which they execute, differences in data representations between platforms, the languages in which objects are implemented, and network transports used to communicate with them. CORBA specifies all of the functions that must be provided by an ORB and a set of standard interfaces to those functions.

OMA
(Object Management Architecture)
COMMON FACILITIES APPLICATION OBJECTS Horizontal
User Interface Mail Printing

Vertical
Telecom Finance Health Care

OBJECT REQUEST BROKER

persistence

naming

trading

security

COMMON OBJECT SERVICES

Naming Services: An URL facilitates the localization of a resource exposed on the Web. e.g., abc.net.in means it is likely to be an Indian entity? A consistent and uniform naming helps processes in a distributed system to interoperate and manage resources. e.g., commercials use .com; non-profit organizations use .org Naming Services are not only useful to locate resources but also to gather additional information about them such as attributes Trading Services: Trading presents a global information repository. The global repository can be updated by independent information producers throughout the world-wide network, and the information users can create effective and large information searches.

CORBA Facilities
CORBA Facilities are useful for constructing applications across a wide range of application domains. They are divided into Horizontal CORBA Facilities, which are typically more user-oriented, and Vertical CORBA Facilities, which support specific application domains. The Horizontal CORBA Facilities currently identified by OMG are grouped into four areas: User Interface Facilities: Desktop Management, Rendering Management, Scripting, and User Support Facilities. Information Management Facilities: Data Encoding and Representation, Data Interchange, Information Exchange, Information Modeling, Information Storage and Retrieval System Management Facilities: Collection Management, Consistency, Customization, Data Collection, Event Management, Instance Management, Policy Management, Process Launch, Quality of Service Management, Scheduling Management, and Security Facilities. Task Management Facilities: Agent, Automation, Rule Management, and Workflow Facilities.