Middleware Support for Open Distributed Applications1

Todays global and high-speed communication networks provide an open system environment which allows to access a nearly unlimited multitude of services at continuously decreasing communication costs. Advanced communication networks thus provide a powerful basis for realizing, e.g., world-wide distributed "Electronic Markets" with increasing similarity to real (i.e. economic) open service markets. However, middleware support for such open distributed applications at an adequate level of abstraction (i.e. beyond elementary communication functions), has still to be designed and implemented. Therefore, this contribution first briefly reviews some typically characteristics of realistic open service markets and then presents an overview of specific system support for such open distributed applications as realized in the ongoing COSM and TRADE projects at Hamburg University.