1. Introduction and Motivation2. Background2.1 Overview of Java2.2 Object Serialization2.3 Remote Method Invocation3. JINI3.1 What is JINI?3.2 How Does JINI Work?4. Experimental Prototype4.1 Assumptions and Scenario4.2 Prototypes4.2.1 Prototypes 1, 2, and 34.2.2 Prototypes 4 and 54.2.3 Prototype 64.3 Future Work5. Conclusions and RecommendationsReferencesAdditional JINI ReferencesJINI: Evaluating the Technology JINI: Evaluating the Technology and Impacton Present and Future Army Systems Prof. Steven A. Demurjian, Sr.Computer Science & Engineering Dept.The University of ConnecticutStorrs, CT [email protected]: 860.486.4818Fax: 860.486.4817 www.engr.uconn.edu/~steveDr. Paul BarrThe MITRE Corp145 Wyckoff RoadEatontown, New Jersey [email protected]: 732-935-5584Fax: 732-544-8317AbstractJava has emerged as a critical technology for supporting the design and development offuture applications that integrate and inter-operate with legacy, COTS, and databaseapplications. The integration and interoperation require a network centric approach, sinceit is the network topology and infrastructure that must underlie any distributed computingapplication. Java RMI, remote method invocation, is an important component of Java thatallows remote methods to be invoked on objects that are distributed across the network.JINI is a new architecture built on top of RMI that promotes the construction anddeployment of distributed applications in a network centric setting. JINI provides conceptsof leases, transactions, and distributed events to allow the construction of robust andscalable distributed applications. This white paper concentrates on the following issues:1. What is the impact of JINI technology on present and future Army systems?2. What is the JINI technology? Where does it fit into the overall Java picture?3. Can JINI be utilized in a replicated environment which promotes high availabilityin a dynamic setting?4. Is JINI ready for prime time? Will it be a big time player for Enterprise ComputingApplications? Multiple software prototypes have been developed to demonstrate and evaluate theoperational capabilities of JINI running on a WinNT platform. Further, these prototypesare intended to address the questions posed in 3 and 4 above, thereby evaluating thecurrent capabilities and future potential of JINI. The prototypes are an important first stepin determining if JINI is “ready for prime time”. This report was supported as part of a research contract from the Mitre Corporation, Eatontown, NJ.1JINI: Evaluating the Technology1. Introduction and MotivationDistributed computing environments for the 21st century will require stakeholders (i.e., software architects,system designers, and application builders) to architect and construct solutions that facilitate theinteroperation of new and existing applications in a network centric environment. A distributedapplication, a system of systems, must be constructed, consisting of legacy, commercial-off-the-shelf(COTS), database, and new client/server applications that must interact to communicate and exchangeinformation between users, and allow users to accomplish their tasks in a productive manner. The issue isnot simply to provide a means to allow different systems to interact and exchange information, but rather topromote the use of existing applications in new and innovative ways in a distributed environment that addsvalue. To adequately support this process, the network and its software infrastructure must be an activeparticipant in the interoperation of distributed applications. Present and future Army Systems exhibit all ofthese characteristics and more, when issues related to the 21st century digitized force are examined andaddressed.The distributed computing platform has common characteristics with other domains, including the need to:manage and control data, allow humans to interact with the data, manipulate or modify the data, maintainthe required levels of system availability and performance, and control the evolution of the computingenterprise. Currently, the data resides in a database or is under the control of a legacy/COTS application,with the interaction achieved via a forms-oriented interface, and the data manipulated by programs writtenin any number of programming languages. Interoperability in a client/server distributed computingenvironment includes the use of a multiple-language, object-oriented applications for distributed multi-process, heterogeneous platforms, which will allow information to be utilized in new and innovative ways.The emergence of distributed object computing (DOC) technology and its competing and/or complementaryparadigms such as DCE[OSF94, Rose92], CORBA[OMG95, Vino97, Yang96], andDCOM/OLE[Micr95], has opened new horizons to the object-oriented approach by enabling the paralleland/or distributed processing of large and computation-intensive object-oriented applications onheterogeneous hardware and software environments. This is precisely one of the major market segmentsthat Java application development is targeting. Furthermore, DOC is positioning itself as the middlewarethat will enable a promising synergism between the object-oriented paradigm and innovative WWWtechnologies, which are two key facets for which Java has been championed. Specifically, Sun supports many varied capabilities for interoperability as part of the Java Enterprise API[JAVAENT], including: Enterprise Java Beans, Java IDL for integration with CORBA, JDBC for DatabaseConnectivity, JNDI (Java Naming and Directory Interface) for platform independent access to nativenaming and directory services, and Java Message Service for reliable queuing, publish/subscribe, and push-pull, etc. These different APIs take a traditional approach to interoperability by providing techniques andtools that support the interoperability of COTS, legacy, and databases, using standards, wrappers,middleware, and file services as a means to cobble together a “system of systems” thereby forming adistributed application. However, it is clear that today’s distributed applications are network centric,operating in a dynamic environment where clients, servers,
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