New York University

Computer Science Department

Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences

 

Object Request Brokers (ORB) Interoperability

 

Course Title: Application Servers                                           Course Number: g22.3033-011

Instructor: Jean-Claude Franchitti                                            Session: 4

 

 

 

Because CORBA is implementation free, a common network protocol is required so different implementations are able to interact. The GIOP (General Inter-ORB Protocol) is specified as the common interface, including message type and format, that is required for general interoperability.


 

 


A semantic layer, the IIOP (Internet Inter-Orb Protocol) is specified to map the GIOP into TCP/IP. This combination of GIOP and IIOP is necessary for out-of-the-box interoperability support. All ORB vendors supporting this protocol should interoperate.

 

However, a single protocol is not correct for all uses or purposes, so it is possible for the GIOP to be mapped into different protocols (such as IPX or SNA).

 

 


 


A single set of interfaces may not be correct for all purposes. In this case, ESIOP (Environment Specific Inter-ORB Protocols) are of interest. The first ESIOP specified is one based on DCE. The DCE-CIOP (DCE Common Inter-ORB Protocol) acts as the glue between the ESIOP and TCP for those specific environments where the DCE protocol is useful.