- 2075 Chaitra · 3+5 marks
Heterogeneous vs homogeneous; CORBA
Short answer
Homogeneous systems have identical nodes (hardware, OS, language) and simpler management; heterogeneous systems involve different platforms and require middleware for interoperability. CORBA provides an Object Request Broker (ORB) with IDL-defined interfaces, stubs/skeletons, Object Adapter (POA), and GIOP/IIOP for communication. Standard services include Naming, Trading, Event, Transaction, Security, and Lifecycle.
Compare heterogeneous and homogeneous distributed system. Explain the CORBA architecture and its services.
Heterogeneous vs homogeneous distributed systems
| Point | Homogeneous | Heterogeneous |
|---|---|---|
| Nodes | Same hardware and same OS | Different hardware, OS and networks |
| Software | Same software and language | Different languages and platforms |
| Data format | Same representation | Different (endianness, encoding), needs conversion |
| Management | Simple | Complex, needs middleware |
| Interoperability | Not an issue | Main challenge |
| Example | Cluster of identical Linux PCs | Internet applications, banks linking Windows, Unix, mainframes |
CORBA architecture
CORBA, from the OMG, is middleware that lets heterogeneous objects communicate through an Object Request Broker (ORB).
Client -> IDL stub / DII -> ORB core ==GIOP/IIOP==> ORB core
|
Servant <- skeleton / DSI <- Object Adapter (POA) <----+
(Interface and Implementation Repositories support the ORB)
Components: ORB core, IDL (language-neutral interface description), client stub and server skeleton, Dynamic Invocation and Skeleton Interfaces, Object Adapter (POA), Interface and Implementation Repositories, and GIOP/IIOP for communication between ORBs of different vendors.
A call flows: client -> stub -> ORB -> object adapter -> skeleton -> servant, and the reply returns on the same path.
CORBA services
Standard IDL-defined services: Naming (name to reference), Trading (find by property), Event/Notification (asynchronous), Life cycle, Persistence, Transaction, Concurrency control, Security, Query, Relationship, Time. They provide the common functions that distributed applications need.
✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)
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