Comparison and Performance Study of Parameter-Passing Semantics and Implementations of Remote Method Invocation

Remote method invocation (RMI), which is an action of invoking a method on a remote object, is widely accepted abstraction for communicating and sharing objects among distributed sites. Ideally, the parameter-passing semantics of RMI should be as close as possible to that of local method invocation. However, in distributed environments, adherence to local parameter-passing model prevents controlling and optimizing object locations. From the standpoint of view that regards location control of objects as a mandatory dimension of the semantics, this paper comprehensively discusses the parameter-passing semantics and implementation strategies of RMI, and presents performance study of those strategies using actual implementations of the strategies.