Four ways to Architect your Distributed Objects From Features to Architectural Styles

Distributed object oriented software is gaining interest. Nevertheless, developing distributed systems is inherently more difficult than creating single-machine applications. Middleware solutions and distributed object frameworks are intended to help developers in building distributed software. Deciding on which distributed technology to deploy, however, is not straightforward. In this paper, we will introduce four architectural styles to classify distributed OO software. The styles differ in object features, connector types and location issues. In addition to a description of the styles we will discuss guidelines for their usage, and indicate which technologies can be deployed to implement the styles. Thus, by classifying and cataloging distributed OO software in architectural styles and providing guidelines for their usage, we are trying to give some guidance for the development of distributed software.