Research Seminar - April 19, 2002

Object Oriented Internet

Abstract:

Computer Networks software has traditionally been handled by operating systems. In recent years the server client paradigm is well established in operating systems and enterprise systems. Especially, after the Internet euphoria, HTTP and XML servers dominates most of the computer world. Their main advantage is the interoperabilities among different computers, computer languages and operating systems. The drawback is the requirement of a commonly accepted standard of protocols. Historically standards had been difficult to enforce except by commercial forces i.e. a proprietary system. Another problem is that this paradigm is very low-level in nature ignoring much of the high-level information in high-level languages. In fact, it ignores most of the advantages inherited from high-level software design technology such as type checking, verification, serialization, security control, migration etc. Furthermore, simple client-server system is difficult for handling states, sessions, synchronization, and exceptions.

On the other hand, progress has also been made in high-level software network architectures. It is typified by distributed object and migrating object technology using Java. As a network programming language Java enables network design at high-level. With the continue improvement in its class library, it is slowly being accepted a language by choice for network design. Apart from its high-level nature, a distinct advantage is its size can be scaled from extremely small to a very large cluster. These servers can be made so small that many traditional devices (ie mobile phones, terminals, data-loggers, fax/mail machines, network hubs, micro-controllers etc) can be designed as Java servers. When combining with the globally unique identification of devices such as mobile phones and/or intelligent ID cards, a form of migrating object technology becomes viable and desirable.

In this talk some of developments in the architecture of Java network system will be described and classified. In particular, the ideas of serialization, persistent objects, servlets, migration, distributed databases will be examined. Their properties will be compared. Examples will be drawn from the design of small server applications by the speaker. The integration of these small servers into hardware opens up a whole new direction and possibilities in sophisticated network software designs. The ultimate goal is a new range of network computing infrastructure that requires little user maintenance and amenable for remote modifications.