Reflective Channel Hierarchies

Hierarchical channel structures are used to create granular sub-channels from a parent channel. Utilized in routing situations that are more or less static, they require that the channel namespace schema be both well defined and universally understood. The publish/subscribe messaging model currently requires a message publisher to place messages into a specific channel within the hierarchy. A relocation of responsibility for channel selection logic from the publishing client to the middleware service would open up static channel hierarchies to the application of reflective techniques. This shift in responsibilities enables the service more control over the definition, creation and maintenance of the channel hierarchy. The service is now able to apply reflective and adaptive techniques to dynamically adapt, grow and improve the hierarchy to better meet the needs of its changing environment and operating conditions. This paper describes work-in-progress on the definition of reflective channel hierarchies.