A Perspective on the Future of Middleware-based Software Engineering Valerie Issarny Mauro Caporuscio Nikolaos Georgantas INRIA-Rocquencourt INRIA-Rocquencourt INRIA-Rocquencourt Domaine de Voluceau Domaine de Voluceau Domaine de Voluceau 78153 Le Chesnay, France. 78153 Le Chesnay, France. 78153 Le Chesnay, France.
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Abstract • An interaction paradigm and semantics for achieving coordination. Middleware is a software layer that stands between the networked operating system and the application and pro- • A transport/session protocol for achieving communi- vides well known reusable solutions to frequently encoun- cation. tered problems like heterogeneity, interoperability, security, dependability. Further, with networks becoming increas- • A naming/discovery protocol, naming/description con- ingly pervasive, middleware appears as a major building vention, registry structure, and matching relation for block for the development of future software systems. Start- publishing and discovering the resources available in ing with the impact of pervasive networking on comput- the given network. ing models, manifested by now common grid and ubiqui- tous computing, this paper surveys related challenges for the middleware and related impact on the software de- velopment. Indeed, future applications will need to cope with advanced non-functional properties such as context- awareness and mobility, for which adequate middleware support must be devised together with accompanying soft- ware development notations, methods and tools. This leads us to introduce our view on next generation middleware, considering both technological advances in the network- ing area but also the need for closer integration with software engineering best practices, to ultimately suggest middleware-based software processes.