Empirically Evaluating CORBA Component Model Implementations

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) middleware is increasingly used to develop distributed real-time and embedded (DRE) systems. DRE systems are increasingly combined using wireless and wireline networks to form “systems of systems” having multiple quality of service (QoS) requirements. Conventional COTS middleware does not facilitate the separation of QoS policies from application functionality, making it hard to configure and validate complex DRE applications. Component-based middleware addresses limitations of COTS middleware by establishing standards for implementing, packaging, assembling, and deploying component implementations. There has been little systematic empirical study of the performance aspects of CORBA Component Model (CCM) implementations, however, particularly in the context of DRE systems. This paper therefore provides three contributions to the study of componentbased middleware. First, we identify the potential performance bottlenecks in CCM implementations. Second, we describe our benchmarking suite to evaluate the overhead of CCM implementations. Third, we develop criteria to compare different CCM implementations using metrics such as latency, throughput, and other performance overheads. Our preliminary results underscore the importance of applying a range of metrics to quantifying CCM implementations effectively.