An architecture and a framework for IP applications

Developing IP applications is important but troublesome in practice since reusable components are usually system-call-level service routines. It is becoming more and more indispensable in this network generation. Under the concept that an IP application consists of distributed objects communicating with one another, the authors define an architecture and design a framework for IP applications. The architecture is a 4-layered model whose layers are communication, ORB (Object Request Broker), state transition, and application. The communication layer is for implementing virtual circuit and datagram communication. The ORB layer is a platform for message exchange over a network. The state transition layer packs automata extracted from a client and a server. The application layer includes objects handling the client user interface and server database. Based an the architecture, they designed a framework for the state transition and application layers. The framework for the state transition layer implements client and server automata. The user interface is categorized into three types: OS command, subcommand, and browser, and then a framework for each type is designed. A database framework provides mechanisms to serve its object-oriented interface. Through the implementation of several IP applications using a prototype version of the framework, usefulness of the architecture and the framework is demonstrated.