¹ Power System Department, Sichuan Electric Power Test and Research Institute, Chengdu, P.R.China
² School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, P.R.China

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Abstract—over the last decade, middleware has emerged as an important architectural component in supporting the construction of distributed applications. However, the current generation of mainstream middleware is always based on the assumptions that distributed applications will run in a static setting. As a result, they fail to provide the appropriate support for the today’s networking environment. Major system requirements imposed by today’s networking environment are relevant to openness, mobility, and context-awareness. This gives a strong incentive to middleware researchers to investigate the new generation middleware with support for openness, mobility, and context-awareness. In this paper, we first identify the major challenges in open and mobile environments and look deeper into the technical requirements for the future middleware. Subsequently, we introduce reflective computing and reflective middleware to resolve some typical problem, which are related to the future middleware system. Finally, we conclude this paper and point out the future directions of research.

Index Terms—openness, mobility, context-aware, dynamics, uncertainty, adaptability, reconfigurablibility, open coordination, light-weight, heavy-weight, pervasive interoperability, reflective computing, reflective middleware

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Cite: Qilin Li and Mingtian Zhou, " The Future-Oriented Middleware Technology," Journal of Computers vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 250-257, 2010.