IT Object Distributor (ITOD)
The IT Object Distributor (ITOD) is the component that implements InfoDyne’s Middleware2 infrastructure. Middleware2 supports diverse applications requiring request/response, publish/subscribe, and general messaging paradigms. Many ITODs can be deployed throughout a LAN, WAN, Intranet, Extranet or Internet environment to create a virtual, scalable, redundant, and distributed enterprise architecture. The ITOD performs connection, service, and object resolution for any number of real-time client and server applications. The ITOD also supports Enterprise Gateway functionality allowing it to integrate within Triarch, TIB, RMDS, and Middleware2 environments simultaneously. As such, the ITOD reflects services, manages request/response traffic, and routes cross-data traffic between these enterprises in real-time. Among other purposes, when operating in an Enterprise Gateway capacity, the ITOD serves as an ideal on-site integration component to extend shared or dedicated “Managed Services” from a common managed service facility.Client/server applications participate in a Middleware2 environment via a virtual Session with an ITOD based on TCP/IP. A single ITOD supports many client and/or server Sessions and there can be many ITOD’s participating in an enterprise system. Through their single Session, applications can communicate with all other client/server instances connected to any other ITOD in the system. Applications need not be aware of how to communicate to other applications, where they are connected within the system, or in what format objects or messages are distributed amongst applications. ITOD’s within a system cooperate to provide real-time routing of request/response and message traffic of objects through connection, service, and object resolution protocols. These protocols are implemented upon standard TCP/IP (a Multicast option is in development) and are part of InfoDyne’s protocol domain.
ITODs may be added to the system at any time, and are automatically discovered and made part of the ITOD collective. The ITOD collective shares knowledge of each participating ITOD in the system, including available services, load characteristics, and other infrastructure properties that are necessary to properly manage request/response and message traffic within a given system scenario. Client/server applications may also come and go at any time. The ITOD collective informs all applications when a new Service is available on the network, or when one has gone away. They inform all effected Services of the disappearance of a given client application. The ITOD collective properly handles the sudden absence of an ITOD, making sure to notify all effected applications of the disappearance of any client/server applications that had a Session to the absent ITOD. Applications whose Sessions were affected will automatically re-establish a Session to another ITOD within the collective.
The ITOD is available for Solaris, Linux, and Windows operating systems and comes in the form of an executable and a set of configuration files. The ITOD is multi-threaded and performs best on a multi-processor architecture. There are no hard limits imposed by the ITOD regarding the number of connections, messages, objects, or other sizing parameters handled by a given instance of an ITOD, however these variables are all configurable.