Introduction to Middleware I

• What is Middleware?
– Layer between OS and distributed applications
– Hides complexity and heterogeneity of distributed system
– Bridges gap between low-level OS communications and programming
language abstractions
– Provides common programming abstraction and infrastructure for
distributed applications
– Overview at: http://www.middleware.org

DistributedApplications
Distributed Applications
Distributed Applications

Middleware (remote calls, object invocation,

messages, …)
OperatingSystem
Operating SystemComms
Comms
Operating System Comms (sockets, IP, TCP, UDP, …)
Network
Network
Network (packets, bits…) 1
Middleware
 Introduction to Middleware II
• Middleware provides support for (some of):
– Naming, Location, Service discovery, Replication
– Protocol handling, Communication faults, QoS
– Synchronisation, Concurrency, Transactions, Storage
– Access control, Authentication

• Middleware dimensions:
– Request/Reply vs. Asynchronous Messaging
– Language-specific vs. Language-independent
– Proprietary vs. Standards-based
– Small-scale vs. Large-scale
– Tightly-coupled vs. Loosely-coupled components

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Middleware
 Outline
• Part I: Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
– Historic interest
• Part II: Object-Oriented Middleware (OOM)
– Java RMI
– CORBA
– Reflective Middleware
a rch
• Part III: ese
Message-Oriented Middleware
r (MOM)
– Java Message Service
– IBM MQSeries
– Web Services
• Part IV: Event-Based Middleware
– Cambridge Event Architecture
– Hermes a rch
s e
r e
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Middleware
 Part I: Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
• Masks remote function calls as being local
• Client/server model
• Request/reply paradigm usually implemented with
message passing in RPC service
• Marshalling of function parameters and return value

Caller RPC Service RPC Service Remote

1) Marshal args Function
2) Generate ID message
3) Start timer 4) Unmarshal
call(…) 5) Record ID fun(…)

8) Unmarshal 6) Marshal
9) Acknowledge 7) Set timer

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Middleware
 Properties of RPC
Language-level pattern of function call
• easy to understand for programmer

Synchronous request/reply interaction

• natural from a programming language point-of-view
• matches replies to requests
• built in synchronisation of requests and replies

Distribution transparency (in the no-failure case)

• hides the complexity of a distributed system

Various reliability guarantees

• deals with some distributed systems aspects of failure
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Middleware
 Failure Modes of RPC
• Invocation semantics supported by RPC in the light of:
network and/or server congestion,
client, network and/or server failure
note DS independent failure modes
• RPC systems differ, many examples, local was Mayflower

Maybe or at most once (RPC system tries once)

• Error return – programmer may retry

Exactly once (RPC system retries a few times)

• Hard error return – some failure most likely
note that “exactly once” cannot be guaranteed

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Middleware
 Disadvantages of RPC
 Synchronous request/reply interaction
• tight coupling between client and server
• client may block for a long time if server loaded
leads to multi-threaded programming at client
fork(…)
• slow/failed clients may delay servers when replying
multi-threading essential at servers
remote call

 Distribution Transparency
join(…)
• Not possible to mask all problems

 RPC paradigm is not object-oriented

• invoke functions on servers as opposed to methods on objects

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Middleware
 Part II: Object-Oriented Middleware (OOM)
• Objects can be local or remote
• Object references can be local or remote
• Remote objects have visible remote interfaces
• Masks remote objects as being local using proxy objects
• Remote method invocation

local OOM OOM remote

object object
object A request
request skeleton
broker broker object B
/ /
object object
manager manager
proxy
object B object B
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Middleware
 Properties of OOM
Support for object-oriented programming model
– objects, methods, interfaces, encapsulation, …
– exceptions (were also in some RPC systems e.g. Mayflower)

Synchronous request/reply interaction

– same as RPC

Location Transparency
– system (ORB) maps object references to locations

Services comprising multiple servers are easier to build with OOM

– RPC programming is in terms of server-interface (operation)
– RPC system looks up server address in a location service

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Middleware
 Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI)
• Covered in 1B Advanced Java programming
• Distributed objects in Java

public interface PrintService extends Remote {

int print(Vector printJob) throws RemoteException;
}

• RMI compiler creates proxies and skeletons

• RMI registry used for interface lookup
• Entire system written in Java (single-language system)

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Middleware
 CORBA
• Common Object Request Broker Architecture
– Open standard by the OMG (Version 3.0)
– Language- and platform independent
• Object Request Broker (ORB)
– General Inter-ORB Protocol (GIOP) for communication
– Interoperable Object References (IOR) contain object location
– CORBA Interface Definition Language (IDL)
• Stubs (proxies) and skeletons created by IDL compiler
– Dynamic remote method invocation
• Interface Repository
– Querying existing remote interfaces
• Implementation Repository
– Activating remote objects on demand
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Middleware
 CORBA IDL
• Definition of language-independent remote interfaces
– Language mappings to C++, Java, Smalltalk, …
– Translation by IDL compiler
• Type system
– basic types: long (32 bit), typedef sequence<string> Files;
long long (64 bit), short, interface PrintService : Server {
void print(in Files printJob);
float, char, boolean,
};
octet, any, …
– constructed types: struct, union, sequence, array, enum
– objects (common super type Object)
• Parameter passing
– in, out, inout
– basic & constructed types passed by value
– objects passed by reference
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Middleware
 CORBA Services (selection)
• Naming Service
– Names  remote object references
• Trading Service
– Attributes (properties)  remote object references
• Persistent Object Service
– Implementation of persistent CORBA objects
• Transaction Service
– Making object invocation part of transactions
• Event Service and Notification Service
– In response to applications‘ need for asynchronous communication
– built above synchronous communication with push or pull options
– not an integrated programming model with general IDL messages

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 Disadvantages of OOM
 Synchronous request/reply interaction only
• So CORBA oneway semantics added and -
• Asynchronous Method Invocation (AMI)
• But implementations may not be loosely coupled

 Distributed garbage collection

• Releasing memory for unused remote objects

 OOM rather static and heavy-weight

• Bad for ubiquitous systems and embedded devices

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Middleware
 OOM experience
Keynote address at Middleware 2009
Steve Vinoski
From Middleware Implementor to Middleware User
(There and back again)

Available from the course materials page and the MW09

program on the website
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Middleware
 Reflective Middleware
• Flexible middleware (OOM) for mobile and context-aware
applications – adaptation to context through monitoring
and substitution of components

• Interfaces for reflection

– Objects can inspect middleware behaviour

• Interfaces for customisability

– Dynamic reconfiguration depending on environment
– Different protocols, QoS, ...
– e.g. use different marshalling strategy over unreliable wireless link

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Middleware
 Part III: Message-Oriented Middleware (MOM)
• Communication using messages
• Messages stored in message queues
• message servers decouple client and server
• Various assumptions about message content

Client App. Server App.

Message Servers

local message message local message

queues queues queues

Network Network Network

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Middleware
 Properties of MOM
Asynchronous interaction
– Client and server are only loosely coupled
– Messages are queued
– Good for application integration
Support for reliable delivery service
– Keep queues in persistent storage
Processing of messages by intermediate message server(s)
– May do filtering, transforming, logging, …
– Networks of message servers
Natural for database integration

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Middleware
 IBM MQSeries
• One-to-one reliable message passing using queues
– Persistent and non-persistent messages
– Message priorities, message notification
• Queue Managers
– Responsible for queues
– Transfer messages from input to output queues
– Keep routing tables
• Message Channels
– Reliable connections between queue managers
• Messaging API: MQopen Open a queue
MQclose Close a queue
MQput Put message into opened queue
MQget Get message from local queue
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Middleware
 Java Message Service (JMS)
• API specification to access MOM implementations
• Two modes of operation *specified*:
– Point-to-point
• one-to-one communication using queues
– Publish/Subscribe
• cf. Event-Based Middleware

• JMS Server implements JMS API

• JMS Clients connect to JMS servers
• Java objects can be serialised to JMS messages
• A JMS interface has been provided for MQ
• pub/sub (one-to-many) - just a specification?
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Middleware
 Disadvantages of MOM
 Poor programming abstraction (but has evolved)
• Rather low-level (cf. Packets)
• Request/reply more difficult to achieve, but can be done

 Message formats originally unknown to middleware

• No type checking (JMS addresses this – implementation?)

 Queue abstraction only gives one-to-one communication

• Limits scalability (JMS pub/sub – implementation?)

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Middleware
 Web Services
• Use well-known web standards for distributed computing
Communication
• Message content expressed in XML
• Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
– Lightweight protocol for sync/async communication

Service Description
• Web Services Description Language (WSDL)
– Interface description for web services

Service Discovery
• Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI)
– Directory with web service description in WSDL
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Middleware
 Properties of Web Services
Language-independent and open standard

SOAP offers OOM and MOM-style communication:

• Synchronous request/reply like OOM
• Asynchronous messaging like MOM
• Supports internet transports (http, smtp, ...)
• Uses XML Schema for marshalling types to/from programming
language types

WSDL says how to use a web service

http://api.google.com/GoogleSearch.wsdl

UDDI helps to find the right web service

• Exports SOAP API for access

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Middleware
 Disadvantages of Web Services
 Low-level abstraction
• leaves a lot to be implemented

 Interaction patterns have to be built

• one-to-one and request-reply provided
• one-to-many?
• still synchronous service invocation, rather than notification
• No nested/grouped invocations, transactions, ...

 No location transparency

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Middleware
 What we lack, so far
 General interaction patterns
• we have one-to-one and request-reply
• one-to-many? many to many?
• notification?
• dynamic joining and leaving?

 Location transparency
• anonymity of communicating entities

 Support for pervasive computing

• data values from sensors
• lightweight software

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Middleware
 Part IV: Event-Based Middleware a.k.a. Publish/Subscribe

• Publishers (advertise and) publish events (messages)

• Subscribers express interest in events with subscriptions
• Event Service notifies interested subscribers of published events
• Events can have arbitrary content (typed) or name/value pairs

subscribe
publish
Publisher notify Subscriber
Event Service
(event-broker subscribe
Publisher publish notify Subscriber
network)
subscribe
Publisher publish notify Subscriber

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Middleware
 Topic-Based and Content-Based Pub/Sub
• Event Service matches events against subscriptions
• What do subscriptions look like?
Topic-Based Publish/Subscribe
– Publishers publish events belonging to a topic or subject
– Subscribers subscribe to a topic
subscribe(PrintJobFinishedTopic, …)

(Topic and) Content-Based Publish/Subscribe

– Publishers publish events belonging to topics and
– Subscribers provide a filter based on content of events
subscribe(type=printjobfinished, printer=‘aspen’, …)

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Middleware
 Properties of Publish/Subscribe
Asynchronous communication
• Publishers and subscribers are loosely coupled

Many-to-many interaction between pubs. and subs.

• Scalable scheme for large-scale systems
• Publishers do not need to know subscribers, and vice-versa
• Dynamic join and leave of pubs, subs, (brokers - see lecture DS-8)

(Topic and) Content-based pub/sub very expressive

• Filtered information delivered only to interested parties
• Efficient content-based routing through a broker network

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Middleware
 Composite Event Detection (CED)
• Content-based pub/sub may not be expressive enough
– Potentially thousands of event types (primitive events)
– Subscribers interest: event patterns (define high-level events, ref DS-2)
• Event Patterns
PrinterOutOfPaperEvent or PrinterOutOfTonerEvent
• Composite Event Detectors (CED)
– Subscribe to primitive events and publish composite events

Publisher
CED Subscriber
Publisher

Publisher CED
CED Subscriber
Publisher
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Middleware
 Summary
• Middleware is an important abstraction for building
distributed systems

1. Remote Procedure Call

2. Object-Oriented Middleware
3. Message-Oriented Middleware
4. Event-Based Middleware

• Synchronous vs. asynchronous communication

• Scalability, many-to-many communication
• Language integration
• Ubiquitous systems, mobile systems

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Middleware