Middleware for Internet distribution in the context of cloud computing and the Internet of Things

Annals of Telecommunications, Feb 2016

Gordon Blair, Douglas Schmidt, Chantal Taconet

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Middleware for Internet distribution in the context of cloud computing and the Internet of Things

Ann. Telecommun. Middleware for Internet distribution in the context of cloud computing and the Internet of Things Gordon Blair 0 1 2 3 4 5 Douglas Schmidt 0 1 2 3 4 5 Chantal Taconet 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 Douglas Schmidt 1 Gordon Blair 2 Chantal Taconet 3 SAMOVAR, Te ́le ́com SudParis , CNRS , Universite ́ Paris-Saclay , E ́ vry , France 4 Vanderbilt University , Nashville, TN , USA 5 Lancaster University , Lancaster , UK Middleware is software that resides between applications, services, and their underlying distributed architecture and platforms. Middleware provides several types of capabilities to developers, including providing higher-level programming abstractions to support the development of applications and services; supporting end-to-end quality attributes, such as scalability, persistence, and security; and masking problems such as system failure and heterogeneity of languages, operating systems, and networks. Middleware has provided a key set of layers in distributed architectures since the early 90s, starting with the basic client/server model of distribution. Over the past several decades, there have been extensive innovations in middleware capabilities, with new paradigms and underlying systems technologies emerging. Significant developments during this time frame include the programming models associated with distributed objects, components, and, - most recently, service-oriented architecture (and associated areas like service composition); new communication architectures focused on group-based communication, publish-subscribe, tuple-space approaches, and message queues; and underlying architectural patterns and software engineering techniques, including reflection and modeldriven engineering for distributed systems (including models at runtime). These innovations have provided developers with an abundance of tools to develop distributed systems and, until recently, middleware has largely delivered on its promise of enhancing portability, interoperability, and integrability. Over the last few years, however, there have been significant trends in distributed systems that motivate new advances in middleware to overcome limitations with conventional middleware technologies. These trends include the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing, which add new and unprecedented challenges for scale, dependability, and security to the underlying middleware technology. When taken together, the challenges are even greater when we move toward complex distributed systems that are very large (Internet scale), highly heterogeneous, and dynamic. There is also a corresponding change in the deployment of distributed systems, moving from individual systems to systems of systems. To address the challenges for middleware emanating from the advent of the Internet of Things and cloud computing, new research is required, particularly with respect to the types of middleware needed to support key domains, such as cyber-physical systems, smart cities, the smart grid, big data analytics, digital earth, and so on. This special issue addresses these challenges by (i) considering the stateof-the-art of middleware in these areas, (ii) documenting emerging ideas and concepts that help meet key challenges, (iii) increasing awareness of a grand challenge for distributed system, and (iv) galvanizing the community of researchers around this challenge. The remainder of this editorial is organized as follows: We first examine the challenges from IoT and cloud computing individually and then consider the additional challenges emanating from emerging systems of systems; an industrial perspective on the potential and challenges of such systems is provided by Stan Schneider, Real-Time Innovations; then, we summarize the papers appearing in this special issue, focusing on how they address the challenges we present; finally, we conclude with a short reflection on progress that has been made in these areas and other key areas of ongoing work. 1 Middleware challenge 1: the Internet of Things The IoT is a key step toward the ubiquitous and disappearing computing world envisioned by Marc Weiser [ 1 ] in the nineties. The IoT represents a significant extension of the current Internet to no longer be just a collection of conventional smart phones, laptops, desktops, and servers, but to greatly expand the Internet to embrace a wide range of physical objects and devices that exhibit pervasive sensing, computational, and actuation capabilities. Through the Internet, such connected Things become globally accessible—and in some cases controllable. More importantly, IoT creates opportunities to develop new types of distributed services and mass market applications in multiple domains, including smart cities, health care, transport, energy, and new forms of eCommerce. Given its role as the universal integrator of distributed computational elements, middleware plays a key role in supporting the development of such IoT enhan (...truncated)


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Gordon Blair, Douglas Schmidt, Chantal Taconet. Middleware for Internet distribution in the context of cloud computing and the Internet of Things, Annals of Telecommunications, 2016, pp. 87-92, Volume 71, Issue 3-4, DOI: 10.1007/s12243-016-0493-z