Object-oriented support for specification of distributed protocols

Abstract

Existing support for distributed software development falls into one of two classes: tool-kits which provide a static set of tools, and system techniques which are quite flexible yet difficult to use. We present a technique that combines the ease-of-use of tool-kits while preserving flexibility. Reflection is used to enable meta-level objects to customize distributed interactions. The architecture supports development of distributed protocols using standard object-oriented techniques without requiring knowledge of an excessive system API. Thus, developing distributed protocols follows the same process as writing any application with distributed objects. Implementation is through compiled objects preserving performance.