Metamorphic Objects and their Use to Dynamic Reconfiguration of CORBA Applications

摘要

The concept of a metamorphic object, which can dynamically change its interface, class definition, and implementation while maintaining the integrity of all client object references was developed at the NCCT Lab of the University of Ottawa for The Dynamic Versioning Service project as a solution to the problem of dynamic (run-time) reconfiguration of distributed CORBA-based applications. The concept of object metamorphism is implemented in conjunction with a. forwarding mechanism. Metamorphism and metamorphic objects were used in the development of CORBA Dynamic Versioning Service for CORBA has been implemented for developing distributed applications using metamorphic objects. The versioning of metamorphic objects from one interface and implementation to another and the impact on performance was evaluated. The ability to transform an instance of one class of metamorphic object to a new definition and implementation, without interruption in service, results in only a slight increase in operation invocation time.