95-702 Distributed Systems

Lecture 8
Chapter 4: Inter-process
Communications
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 Middleware layers

Applications, services

RMI and RPC

request-reply protocol Middleware

This
layers
chapter
marshalling and external data representation

UDP and TCP

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 Marshalling and External Data
Representation
Messages consist of sequences of bytes.

Interoperability Problems
Big-endian, little-endian byte ordering
Floating point representation
Character encodings (ASCII, UTF-8, Unicode, EBCDIC)

So, we must either:

Have both sides agree on an external representation or
transmit in the sender’s format along with an indication
of the format used. The receiver converts to its form.

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 External Data Representation
and Marshalling
External data representation – an agreed standard for the
representation of data structures and primitive values

Marshalling – the process of taking a collection of data items

and assembling them into a form suitable for transmission in
a message

Unmarshalling – is the process of disassembling them on

arrival into an equivalent representation at the destination

The marshalling and unmarshalling are intended to be carried

out by the middleware layer
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 External Data Representation
and Marshalling
Quiz:

Suppose we write a Java TCP client and server.

And suppose we we pass java objects rather than
simple characters, would the server interoperate
with a .NET client?

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 Three Important Approaches
To External Data Representation and Marshalling:

CORBA’s CDR binary data may be used by

different programming languages

Java and .Net Remoting Object Serialization are both

platform specific (that is, Java on both sides or .Net
on both sides) and binary.

XML is a textual format, verbose when compared

to binary but more interoperable.

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 Interoperability
Consider int j = 3;

What does it look like in memory?

00000000000000000000000000000011

How could we write it to the wire?

Little-Endian approach Big-Endian Approach
Write 00000011 Write 0000000
Then 00000000 Then 0000000
Then 00000000 Then 0000000
Then 00000000 Then 0000011
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which one we are using!
 Binary vs. Unicode
Consider int j = 3;
j holds a binary representation 00…011
We could also write it in Unicode.
The character ‘3’ is coded as 0000000000110011
Binary is better for arithmetic.

The character ‘Ω’ is coded as 0000001110101001

The number 43 can be written as a 32 bit binary
integer or as two 16 bit Unicode characters
The receiver had better know
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System Management
 Let’s Examine Three Approaches
to external data representation
•  CORBA’s Common Data Representation
•  Java’s serialization
•  Web Service use of XML

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 CORBA Common Data Representation
(CDR) for constructed types
Ty p e Rep re s e n t at i o n
se q u en c e le n g t h (u n s ig n e d lo n g ) f ol lo we d b y ele m e n ts in o r d e r
st r in g le n g t h (u n s ig n e d lo n g ) f ol lo we d b y cha r ac t er s i n or d e r (c an als o
can ha ve w i d e cha r ac t er s)
ar r ay ar ra y e l em e n t s in or d er (n o le ng t h sp e c if i ed be cau se i t i s f i x e d )
st r uc t in th e o rd er of dec l ar a ti o n of t h e com po n e n t s
en u m
e r a t e d un s i g n e d lo n g ( t h e v a l u es ar e sp ec i f i ed b y th e or d er de cl a re d )
un io n ty p e t ag fo l l o w
ed by t h e se le c ted me m be r

•  Can be used by a variety of programming languages.

•  The data is represented in binary form.
•  Values are transmitted in sender’s byte ordering which is
specified in each message.
•  May be used for arguments or return values in RMI.
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 CORBA CDR message
index in notes
sequence of bytes 4 bytes on representation
0–3 5 length of string
4–7 "Smit" ‘Smith’
8–11 "h___"
12–15 6 length of string
16–19 "Lond" ‘London’
20-23 "on__"
24–27 1934 unsigned long

struct with value: {‘Smith’, ‘London’, 1934}

In CORBA, it is assumed that the sender and receiver have common
knowledge of the order and types of the data items to be transmitted
in a message.
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 CORBA
CORBA Interface Definition Language (IDL)
CORBA Interface Compiler
struct Person { generates
string name;
string place; Appropriate marshalling
long year; and unmarshalling operations
};

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 Java Serialization
public class Person implements Serializable {
private String name;
private String place;
private int year;
public Person(String nm, place, year) {
nm = name; this.place = place; this.year =
year;
}
// more methods
}
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 Java Serialization
Serialization refers to the activity of flattening an
object or even a connected set of objects
- May be used to store an object to disk
- May be used to transmit an object as an
argument or return value in Java RMI
- The serialized object holds Class
information as well as object instance data
- There is enough class information passed to
allow Java to load the appropriate class at
runtime. It may not know before hand what
type of object to expect
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 Java Serialized Form

Serialized values Explanation

Person 8-byte version number h0 class name, version number

int year java.lang.String java.lang.String number, type and name of

3 name: place: instance variables
1934 5 Smith 6 London h1 values of instance variables

The true serialized form contains additional type markers; h0 and h1

are handles are references to other locations within the serialized form
The above is a binary representation of {‘Smith’, ‘London’, 1934}

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 Web Service use of XML
<p:person p:id=“123456789” xmlns:p=“http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~mm6”>
<p:name>Smith</p:name>
<p:place>London</p:place>
<p:year>1934</p:year>
</p:person>

•  Textual representation is readable by editors like Notepad or Textedit.

•  But can represent any information found in binary messages.
•  How? Binary data (e.g. pictures and encrypted elements) may be represented
in Base64 notation.
•  Messages may be constrained by a grammar written in XSD.
•  An XSD document may be used to describes the structure and type of the data.
•  Interoperable! A wide variety of languages and platforms support
the marshalling and un-marshalling of XML messages.
•  Verbose but can be compressed.
•  Standards and tools still under development in a wide range of domains.

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 But what about passing
pointers?
In systems such as Java RMI or CORBA or .NET remoting, we need a
way to pass pointers to remote objects.

Quiz: Why is it not enough to pass along a heap address?

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 Representation of a Remote
Object Reference

32 bits 32 bits 32 bits 32 bits

of
Internet address port number time object number interface
remote object

A remote object reference is an identifier for a remote object.

May be returned by or passed to a remote method in Java RMI.

How do these references differ from local references?

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 A Request Reply Protocol

OK, we know how to pass messages and addresses of objects.

But how does the middleware carry out the communication?

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UDP Style Request-Reply
Communication
Client Server

Request
doOperation
message getRequest
select object
(wait) execute
Reply method
message sendReply
(continuation)

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 UDP Based Request-Reply
Protocol
Client side
b = doOperation
Client side:

public byte[] doOperation (RemoteObjectRef o, int methodId, byte[] arguments)

sends a request message to the remote object and returns the reply.
The arguments specify the remote object, the method to be invoked and the
arguments of that method. Server side:

Server side: b=getRequest()

operate
public byte[] getRequest (); sendReply()
acquires a client request via the server port.

public void sendReply (byte[] reply, InetAddress clientHost, int clientPort);

sends the reply message reply to the client at its Internet address and port.
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 Failure Model of UDP Request
Reply ProtocolClient side
b = doOperation
A UDP style doOperation may timeout while
waiting.
What should it do?
-- return to caller passing an error message
-- but perhaps the request was received and the
response was lost, so, we might write the
client to try and try until convinced that the
receiver is down
In the case where we retransmit messages
Server side: the
server may receive duplicates
b=getRequest()
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sendReply()
 Failure Model Handling Duplicates
(Appropriate for UDP but not TCP)
•  Suppose the server receives a duplicate
messages.
•  The protocol may be designed so that either
(a) it re-computes the reply (in the case of
idempotent operations) or
(b) it returns a duplicate reply from its history of
previous replies
•  Acknowledgement from client clears the history

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Request-Reply Message Structure

messageType int (0=Request, 1= Reply)

requestId int
objectReference RemoteObjectRef
methodId int or Method
arguments array of bytes

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 RPC Exchange Protocols
Identified by Spector[1982]

Na m
e Me ss age s s e n t by
Cl ie n t Se r v er Cl ie n t
R Re q ue st

RR Re q ue st Re p ly
A
RR Re q ue st Re p ly Ac kn ow
l edge rep ly

R= no response is needed and the client requires

no confirmation
RR= a server’s reply message is regarded as an
acknowledgement
RRA= Server may discard entries from its history
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 A Quiz

Why is TCP chosen for request-reply protocols?

Variable size parameter lists.

TCP works hard to ensure that messages are
delivered reliably.
So, no need to worry over retransmissions, filtering
of duplicates or histories.
The middleware is easier to write.

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 HTTP Request Message
Traditional HTTP request
method URL or pathname HTTP version headers message body

GET //www.SomeLoc/?age=23 HTTP/ 1.1

HTTP Is Implemented over TCP.

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 HTTP SOAP Message
Web Services style HTTP request
method URL or pathname HTTP version headers message body

POST //SomeSoapLoc/server HTTP/ 1.1 <SOAP-ENV

<age>23…

HTTP is extensible.

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Traditional HTTP Reply Message

HTTP version status code reason headers message body

HTTP/1.1 200 OK <html>…

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HTTP Web Services SOAP Reply
Message

HTTP version status code reason headers message body

HTTP/1.1 200 OK <?xml version..

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 A Working Toy Example
Server side code:

servant MyCoolClassServant.java
server CoolClassServer.java
skeleton MyCool_Skeleton.java
interface MyCoolClass.java

Client side code:

Client CoolClient.java
Interface MyCoolClass.java
stub CoolClass_Stub.java

Netbeans 6.8
LowLevelDistributedObjectProject
LowLevelDistributedObjectProjectClient

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 CoolClassServer.java
public class CoolClassServer {

public static void main(String args[]) {

System.out.println("Main");

MyCool_Skeleton cs =
new MyCool_Skeleton(new MyCoolClass_Servant());

cs.serve();

}
}

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 MyCoolClass_Servant.java
public class MyCoolClass_Servant implements MyCoolClass {

private String n[] = {"printer","stereo","TV","ipod","pda"};

private String a[] = {"HP200XT","Kenwood200","Panasonic","Apple","Palm"};

public String getDevice(String name) {

for(int i = 0; i < n.length; i++) {

if(n[i].equals(name)) return a[i];
}
return "No device";
}
}

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 MyCool_Skeleton.java (1)
import java.io.ObjectOutputStream;
import java.io.ObjectInputStream;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.net.ServerSocket;

public class MyCool_Skeleton {

MyCoolClass mcc;

public MyCool_Skeleton(MyCoolClass p) {

mcc = p;
}

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 MyCoolSkeleton.java (2)
public void serve() {
try {
ServerSocket s = new ServerSocket(9000);
while(true) {
Socket socket = s.accept();
ObjectInputStream i = new
ObjectInputStream(socket.getInputStream());
String name = (String)i.readObject();
String result = mcc.getDevice(name);
ObjectOutputStream o = new
ObjectOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
o.writeObject(result);
o.flush();
}
}
catch(Throwable t) {
System.out.println("Error " + t);
System.exit(0);
}
}
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 MyCoolClass.java
// Exists on both the client and server

public interface MyCoolClass {

public String getDevice(String name) throws Exception;

}

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 CoolClient.java
public class CoolClient {

public static void main(String args[]) {

try {

MyCoolClass p = new CoolClass_Stub();

System.out.println(p.getDevice(args[0]));
}
catch(Throwable t) {
t.printStackTrace();
System.exit(0);
}
}
}

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 CoolClass_Stub.java (1)
import java.io.ObjectOutputStream;
import java.io.ObjectInputStream;
import java.net.Socket;

public class CoolClass_Stub implements MyCoolClass {

Socket socket;
ObjectOutputStream o;
ObjectInputStream i;

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 CoolClass_Stub.java (2)
public String getDevice(String name) throws Exception {

socket = new Socket("localhost",9000);

o = new ObjectOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
o.writeObject(name);
o.flush();

i = new ObjectInputStream(socket.getInputStream());

String ret = (String)(i.readObject());

socket.close();
return ret;
}
}

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 Discussion
With respect to the previous system, let’s discuss:

Request-Reply protocol.
Marshalling and external data representation.
Interoperability.
Security.
Reliability.
Performance.
Openness.
Use of Metadata.
Remote references.

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