Intelligent Distributed Computing Department Distributed Systems Technology Group Technologies

 

Quality Objects (QuO)

QuO version 3.1 is now available

Contents

• QuO Overview
• QuO Projects
• Other Related Projects
• QuO People
• QuO Papers and Presentations
• QuO Alumni
• Related People and Projects

QuO Overview

Quality Objects (QuO) is a framework for providing quality of service (QoS) in network-centric distributed applications. These applications range from embedded applications to wide area network applications, including many military and commercial applications.

In recent years, object-oriented programming has become quite popular because of the many software engineering benefits it provides. These benefits are even more pronounced in distributed applications, application programs which must operate between multiple computers. The Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) standard by the Object Management Group (OMG) consortium has become quite popular for distributed applications. There are currently CORBA products from vendors such as Inprise, OCI, Sun Microsystems, and Iona Technologies, and others. However, CORBA does not yet deal well with the problems associated with developing and deploying distributed applications which operate across WANs, mobile links, etc. In such environments bandwidth is limited, resource availability changes quickly, and there is neither central control nor predictability.

In separate efforts, quality of service (QoS) is being developed as a way to manage communications and other kinds of resources to provide bandwidth and other properties (see the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the IWQoS Workshop, for example). However, these efforts are currently not helpful to many WAN-based distributed applications for two reasons. First, they generally assume a fairly controlled and tame environment such as a local area network (LAN). Second, they are based at the socket level (which only encapsulates communication resources) rather than at the distributed object level (which encapsulates communications, processing, and storage resources). These resource tradeoffs are probably the right ones to manage some applications, such as video and multimedia. However, many distributed applications spanning WANS are interested in other properties, including security, dependability, and real-time behavior.

We are developing QuO to help distributed application developers write programs that can run reasonably over WANs, LANs, and embedded environments. QuO bridges the gap between the socket-level QoS being specified, researched, and provided by a number of organizations and the distributed object level where many distributed applications are best written. QuO adds QoS to CORBA and Java RMI in a manner which is appropriate for creating applications that can adapt to environments that are unpredictable or have strict resource constraints. QuO integrates and simplifies information from many:

• providers: QoS API and middleware designers, QoS contract designers, the application program,providors remote objects, operations staff (who configure resources), network management systems, etc.
• locations: Client host, remote object's host, network
• times: Language design time, application development time, application initialization time, contract setup time, when network conditions change, when an object invocation (like a procedure call) is made, etc.

to help the developer. Further, trying to provide absolute "guarantees" over WANs (proving semantics close to local procedure calls or invocations across an unloaded LAN) will be either too expensive, suffer too high a latency, or be far too complicated to program. Thus, QuO's emphasis is on specification, measuring, controlling, and adapting to changes in QoS. QuO provides a number of capabilities, including the following:

• Application-level specification and monitoring of QoS. QuO allows the application to specify its QoS requirements to be specified at its level of abstraction and to measure how well its requirements are being met.
• Flexible Adaptation and control. When the requirements are not being met, QuO provides the ability to adapt at many levels in the system. These include adapting at the mechanism level (possibly with help from the application or QuO through control interfaces), adapting at the QuO middleware layer through contract transition behavior and delegate decisions, and adapting at the application level.
• Integration of multiple QoS Subsystems with COTS. QuO allows the integration of different subsystems providing QoS mechanisms and services.
• Extensibility. QuO allows users to extend many of its components or even add their own languages or subsystems as needed.
• Toolkit. QuO provides a suite of quality description languages (QDL), compilers, and library components to ease the burden of QoS programming.

For further introduction to the issues involved with providing QoS to WAN applications, with an introduction to QuO, please see our paper in the January 1997 issue of Theory and Practice of Object Systems, or any of our other papers.

QuO Projects

• AIRES
• APOD
• AQuA
• DIRM
• ITUA
• Toolkit
• Quorum Distributed Object Integration

Other Related Projects

• PhishBouncer , download available
• CSISM
• DPASA, pwd protected only

QuO People

• Rick Schantz
• John Zinky
• Joe Loyall
• Partha Pal
• Richard Shapiro
• Michael Atighetchi
• Paul Rubel
• Franklin Webber
• Prakash Manghwani
• Praveen Sharma
• Jianming Ye
• Matt Gillen
• Jennifer Chong
• Kurt Rohloff
• Mark Berman

QuO Papers and Presentations

This is a selected list of recent QuO related papers. A more complete listing is here.

QuO Middleware Architecture Papers

• Praveen K. Sharma, Joseph P. Loyall, George T. Heineman, Richard E. Schantz, Richard Shapiro, Gary Duzan. Component-Based Dynamic QoS Adaptations in Distributed Real-Time and Embedded Systems. International Symposium on Distributed Objects and Applications (DOA), Agia Napa, Cyprus, October 25-29, 2004.
• Nanbor Wang, Christopher Gill, Douglas Schmidt, Aniruddha Gokhale, Balachandran Natarajan, Joseph Loyall, Richard Schantz, and Craig Rodrigues. QoS-enabled Middleware. Chapter in Middleware for Communications, Qusay H. Mahmoud (Editor), Wiley, July 2004.
• George Heineman, Joseph Loyall, and Richard Schantz. Component Technology and QoS Management. International Symposium on Component-based Software Engineering (CBSE7), Edinburgh, Scotland, May 24-25, 2004.
• Gary Duzan, Joseph Loyall, Richard Schantz, Richard Shapiro, and John Zinky. Building Adaptive Distributed Applications with Middleware and Aspects. International Conference on Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD '04), Lancaster, UK, March 22-26, 2004.
• Schantz RE, Loyall JP, Atighetchi M, Pal PP. Packaging Quality of Service Control Behaviors for Reuse. ISORC 2002, The 5th IEEE International Symposium on Object-Oriented Real-time distributed Computing, April 29 - May 1, 2002, Washington, DC.
• Pal PP, Loyall JP, Schantz RE, Zinky JA, Shapiro R, Megquier J. Using QDL to Specify QoS Aware Distributed (QuO) Application Configuration. Proceedings of ISORC 2000, The Third IEEE International Symposium on Object-Oriented Real-time Distributed Computing, March 15-17, 2000, Newport Beach, CA.
• Schantz R, Zinky JA, Karr DA, Bakken DE, Megquier J, Loyall JP. An Object-level Gateway Supporting Integrated-Property Quality of Service. Proceedings of ISORC '99, The 2nd IEEE International Symposium on Object-oriented Real-time distributed Computing, May 2-5, 1999, Palais du Grand Large 35 407 Saint-Malo, FRANCE.
• Vanegas R, Zinky JA, Loyall JP, Karr DA, Schantz RE, Bakken DE. QuO's Runtime Support for Quality of Service in Distributed Objects. Proceedings of the IFIP International Conference on Distributed Systems Platforms and Open Distributed Processing (Middleware'98), 15-18 September 1998, The Lake District, England.
• Loyall JP, Bakken DE, Schantz RE, Zinky JA, Karr DA, Vanegas R, Anderson KR. QoS Aspect Languages and Their Runtime Integration. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 1511, Springer-Verlag. Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on Languages, Compilers, and Run-time Systems for Scalable Computers (LCR98), 28-30 May 1998, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• Loyall JP, Schantz RE, Zinky JA, Bakken DE. Specifying and Measuring Quality of Service in Distributed Object Systems. Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Object-Oriented Real-Time Distributed Computing (ISORC '98), 20-22 April 1998, Kyoto, Japan.
• Zinky JA, Bakken DE, Schantz R. Architectural Support for Quality of Service for CORBA Objects. Theory and Practice of Object Systems, Jan 1997.

QuO in Embedded Systems Papers

• Christopher Gill, Jeanna Gossett, David Corman, Joseph Loyall, Richard Schantz, Michael Atighetchi, and Douglas Schmidt. Integrated Adaptive QoS Management in Middleware: A Case Study. 10^th IEEE Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Applications Symposium (RTAS 2004), Toronto, Canada, May 25-28, 2004.
• Richard E. Schantz, Joseph Loyall, Craig Rodrigues, Douglas C. Schmidt, Yamuna Krishnamurthy, and Irfan Pyarali. Flexible and Adaptive QoS Control for Distributed Real-time and Embedded Middleware. The ACM/IFIP/USENIX International Middleware Conference, June 2003, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• Karr DA, Rodrigues C, Loyall JP, Schantz RE. Controlling Quality-of-Service in a Distributed Video Application by an Adaptive Middleware Framework. Proceedings of ACM Multimedia 2001, September 30 - October 5, 2001, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
• Karr DA, Rodrigues C, Loyall JP, Schantz RE, Krishnamurthy Y, Pyarali I, Schmidt DC. Application of the QuO Quality-of-Service Framework to a Distributed Video Application. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Objects and Applications, September 18-20, 2001, Rome, Italy.
• Krishnamurthy Y, Kachroo V, Karr DA, Rodrigues C, Loyall JP, Schantz RE, Schmidt DC. Integration of QoS-Enabled Distributed Object Computing Middleware for Developing Next-Generation Distributed Applications. Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Optimization of Middleware and Distributed Systems (OM 2001), June 18, 2001, Snowbird, Utah.
• Loyall JL, Gossett JM, Gill CD, Schantz RE, Zinky JA, Pal P, Shapiro R, Rodrigues C, Atighetchi M, Karr D. Comparing and Contrasting Adaptive Middleware Support in Wide-Area and Embedded Distributed Object Applications. Proceedings of the 21st IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS-21), April 16-19, 2001, Phoenix, Arizona.

QuO in Wide-Area Environments Papers

• Schantz RE, Zinky JA, Loyall JP, Shapiro R, Megquier J. Adaptable Binding for Quality of Service in Highly Networked Applications. Proceedings of SSGRR-2000, International Conference on Advances in Infrastructure for Electronic Business, Science, and Education on the Internet, July 31-August 6, 2000, L'Aquila, Italy.

QuO in Survivable Systems Papers

• Partha Pal, Richard Schantz, and Joseph Loyall. Timeliness in Auto-Adaptive Distributed Systems. Fourth International Workshop on Distributed Auto-adaptive and Reconfigurable Systems (DARES 2004), Tokyo, Japan, March 23-26, 2004.
• Richard E. Schantz, Franklin Webber, Partha Pal, Joseph Loyall, and Douglas C. Schmidt.  Protecting Applications Against Malice Using Adaptive Middleware.  In Certification and Security in E-Services edited by Enrico Nardelli, Sabina Posadziejewski, Maurizio Talamo, IFIP 17th World Computer Congress, August 26-29, 2002, Montreal, Canada, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003, pp. 73-108.
• Michael Atighetchi, Partha Pal, Chris Jones, Paul Rubel, Richard Schantz, Joseph Loyall, and John Zinky.  Building Auto-Adaptive Distributed Applications: The QuO-APOD Experience. The 3rd International Workshop on Distributed Auto-adaptive and Reconfigurable Systems, in conjunction with the 23rd International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, Providence, Rhode Island, USA. May 19-22, 2003.
• Partha Pal, Michael Atighetchi, Franklin Webber, Rick Schantz, and Chris Jones.  Adaptive Use of Network-Centric Mechanisms in Cyber-Defense. The 6th IEEE International Symposium on Object-oriented Real-time Distributed Computing, Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan. May 14-16, 2003.
• Partha Pal, Michael Atighetchi, Franklin Webber, Richard Schantz and Chris Jones. Reflections On Evaluating Survivability: The APOD Experiments. The 2nd IEEE International Symposium on Network Computing and Applications (NCA-03), Royal Sonesta Hotel,Cambridge, MA, USA, April 16-18, 2003.
• M. Cukier, T. Courtney, J. Lyons, H. V. Ramasamy, W. H. Sanders, M. Seri, M. Atighetchi, P. Rubel, C. Jones, F. Webber, P. Pal. R. Watro, and J. Gossett. Providing Intrusion Tolerance With ITUA. Supplement of the 2002 International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, June 23-26, 2002.
• W. H. Sanders, M. Cukier, F. Webber, P. Pal, and R. Watro. Probabilistic Validation of Intrusion Tolerance. Digest of Fast Abstracts: The International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, Bethesda, Maryland, June 2002.
• Pal P, Webber F, Schantz RE, Atighetchi M, Loyall JP. Defense-Enabling Using Advanced Middleware - An Example. Proceedings Milcom 2001, October 28-31, 2001, Tysons Corner, Virginia.
• Pal P, Webber F, Schantz RE, Loyall JP, Watro R, Sanders W, Cukier M and Gossett J. Survival by Defense-Enabling. Proceedings of the New Security Paradigms Workshop 2001, Cloudcroft, New Mexico, September 11-13, 2001, pp. 71-78.
• Cukier M, Lyons J, Pandey P, Ramasamy HV, Sanders WH, Pal P, Webber F, Schantz R, Loyall J, Watro R, Atighetchi M, Gossett J. Intrusion Tolerance Approaches in ITUA. Fast Abstract in Supplement of the 2001 International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, July 1-4, 2001, Göteborg, Sweden, pp. B-64 to B-65.
• Webber F, Pal P, Schantz R, Loyall J. Defense-Enabled Applications. Proceedings of the second DARPA Information Survivability Conference and Exposition (DISCEX II), June 12-14, 2001, Anaheim, California.
• Rubel P and Pal P. Assessing Adaptation in the Context of Security and Survivability. Presented as a position paper in the First Workshop on Information-Security-System Rating and Ranking (ISSRR), Williamsburg, VA, May 2001.
• Pal P, Webber F, Schantz RE, and Loyall JP. Intrusion Tolerant Systems. Proceedings of the IEEE Information Survivability Workshop (ISW-2000), 24-26 October 2000, Boston, Massachusetts.
• Loyall JP, Pal PP, Schantz RE, Webber F. Building Adaptive and Agile Applications Using Intrusion Detection and Response. Proceedings of NDSS 2000, the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, February 2-4 2000, San Diego, CA.
• Pal PP, Loyall JP, Schantz RE, Zinky JA, Webber F. Open Implementation Toolkit for Building Survivable Applications. Proceedings of DISCEX 2000, the DARPA Information Survivability Conference and Exposition, January 25-27, 2000, Hilton Head Island, SC.

Middleware Papers

• Joseph Loyall, Emerging Trends in Adaptive Middleware and its Application to Distributed Real-time Embedded Systems. Third International Conference on Embedded Software (EMSOFT 2003), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 13-15, 2003.
• Schantz RE, Schmidt DC. Middleware for Distributed Systems - Evolving the Common Structure for Network-centric Applications. Chapter in The Encyclopedia of Software Engineering. John Wiley & Sons. To appear December 2001.
• Schmidt DC, Schantz RE, Masters MW, Cross JK, Sharp DC, DiPalma LP. Toward Adaptive and Reflective Middleware for Network-Centric Combat Systems. Crosstalk The Journal of Defense Software Engineering, November 2001, pp. 10-16.

Miscellaneous QuO, QoS, and Middleware Papers

• AQuA and DIRM: QuO Projects Overview. DARPA ITO Quorum Meeting, Dec 1996.
• Bakken DE. Object-Oriented QoS for C2 Adaptivity and Evolvability. DARPA Workshop on Security Technology for Next-Generation C2 Systems, July 29-30, 1996.
• Object-Oriented QoS: Some Research Issues. Dec 1996.
• Zinky JA, Bakken DE, Schantz R. Overview of Quality of Service for Distributed Objects. Proceedings of the Fifth IEEE Dual Use Conference, May 1995.

QuO Alumni

• Dave Bakken
• Gary Duzan
• Chris Jones
• David Karr
• Susan Lubar
• James Megquier
• Craig Rodrigues
• Rodrigo Vanegas

Related People and Projects

• The Institute for Software Integrated Systems at Vanderbilt University.
• The Distributed Object Computing (DOC) groups at Washington University, St. Louis, and University of California, Irvine, Dr. Douglas C. Schmidt, and Dr. Ron K. Cytron.
• Worcester Polytechnic Institute, George Heineman
• The Real-time Distributed Object Computing Group at the University of Rhode Island, Dr. Vic Fay-Wolfe and Dr. Lisa DiPippo.
• The Performability Engineering Research Group at the University of Illinois and Dr. Bill Sanders.
• The Darwin Project at Carnegie Mellon University and Peter Steenkiste.

QuO research has been funded in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Last modified January 30 2006

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