On the design of heterogeneous applications for distributed coordination

The current state of the art in the existing middleware technologies does not support the development of distributed applications that need processes to complete a task collaboratively. What is needed in the next generation of middleware is a synergy of heterogeneity, distribution, communication, and coordination. We are proposing to augment the existing middleware technologies to provide collaboration support through a multiparty interaction (MI) protocol rather than design a new programming language for distributed coordinated programming. A 4-layered interaction model will be presented to decouple the applications and their underlying middleware implementations including coordination protocols by providing a set of generic interfaces to the applications. The decoupling of applications and middleware technologies by isolating computation, communication, and coordination promotes reuse, improves comprehension, and eases maintenance due to software evolution.