A Framework for Transparent Active Replication in Remote Method Invocation

Abstract

The Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) simplifies the development of distributed applications. However, the specification relies on the client/server communication paradigm, creating a single point of failure at the server side. To address this issue, some approaches extend RMI syntax and semantic to encompass fault tolerance. However, this solution is neither transparent for the application programmer nor for the client. This paper describes a middleware platform that enhances JRMI with strong replica consistency. The middleware is completely transparent for the client and does not require recoding on the server side.