What is CORBA in Distributed computing?
- CORBA stands for Common Object Request Broker Architecture.
- It enables software components to communicate with each other regardless of their programming language, operating system, or hardware platform.
- CORBA is a middleware platform that provides a way for objects to communicate with each other across a network.
The CORBA architecture consists of four main components:
- Object Request Broker (ORB): The ORB is the core of the CORBA architecture. It is responsible for managing the communication between objects, providing location transparency, and supporting the invocation of remote methods.
- Interface Definition Language (IDL): The IDL is a language for describing the interfaces of CORBA objects. It is used to define the methods and attributes that are accessible to other objects.
- Naming Service: The naming service is a directory service that provides a way for objects to find each other.
- Object Adapter: The object adapter is responsible for managing the lifecycle of CORBA objects. It creates objects, destroys objects, and manages the invocation of methods on objects.
CORBA is a powerful tool for building distributed applications.
Advantages of CORBA:
- Interoperability: CORBA allows objects to communicate with each other regardless of their programming language, operating system, or hardware platform. This makes it possible to build applications that are composed of objects that are scattered across different machines and written in different languages.
- Location transparency: CORBA provides location transparency, which means that objects can be accessed without having to know where they are located. This makes it easier to build distributed applications that are scalable and fault tolerant.
- Standardization: CORBA is a standard, which means that there are a number of different implementations available. This makes it easier to find an implementation that meets your specific needs.
- Security: CORBA provides a number of security features, such as authentication and encryption. This makes it possible to build secure distributed applications.
Disadvantage of CORBA:
- Complexity: CORBA is a complex architecture, which can make it difficult to learn and use.
- Deployment complexity: CORBA applications can be difficult to deploy and manage.
- Performance: CORBA can be slower than other distributed computing technologies, such as RMI.
- Lack of adoption: CORBA is not as widely adopted as other distributed computing technologies, such as REST.
Application of CORBA:
- Enterprise applications: CORBA is often used to build enterprise applications that need to be scalable, fault-tolerant, and interoperable. Example: CRM
- Telecommunications: CORBA can be used to build billing systems, call routing systems, and network management systems.
- Manufacturing: CORBA can be used to build production planning systems, inventory management systems, and quality control systems