CORBA for Realtime

1
CORBA for Realtime

• What is OMG doing for Realtime CORBA and why
  should you care?

Dock Allen Computing Devices International OMG
Realtime SIG Chair [phone] Dock.Allen_at_cdev.
com
2
What Is Realtime CORBA

• Realtime is not just real fast
• Predictability for QoS is essential
• Fault Tolerance must be considered
• Support for management of deadlines is needed
• Realtime CORBA is not CORBA on an RTOS
• Some soft realtime systems do not require an
  RTOS, and could be implemented on commercial OSs
• Hard realtime systems will require an RTOS

3
Why Should You Care?

• C4I systems have realtime requirements
• not typically hard realtime but -
• there are soft deadlines (displaying the location
  of a vehicle on the battlefield and coordinating
  with a map display during high intensity combat)
• some information is useless if not displayed in a
  timely manner
• certain critical events (such as a biological
  attack sensor alert) must be handled preemptively
• C4I systems need predictability to meet high QoS
  requirements
• adding more processors to get the job done is
  too expensive

4
Why Should You Care?

• C4I systems must interface with embedded assets
  that have realtime requirements, without
  degrading their realtime performance. Examples
  of these assets are
• signal processing systems and EW systems
• communications systems
• fire control systems
• Portions of C4I systems are high performance
• some C4I systems are now integrating sensors
• Some C4I systems must deal with degraded
  conditions (loss of comm bandwidth, loss of
  processing assets) on the battlefield

5
What Is OMG Doing?

• Asynchronous Messaging Technology (nearing
  adoption)
• Pass by Value extensions for increased
  performance
• The Realtime SIG was chartered
• adding Realtime Support to CORBA specifications
  across application domains
• adding support for fault tolerance
• A Performance Metrics Working Group was formed

6
Realtime SIG Mission

• Mission The Realtime PSIG (RTSIG) will work
  within the OMG to augment existing OMA technology
  for the requirements of realtime systems, and to
  promote CORBA technology in the realtime market
  place.

7
Who Is Involved?

• Representatives from the US DOD and Canadian
  Dept. of National Defense
• CORBA Vendors including Chorus, Iona, Visigenic,
  Real Objects, HP, BE, Expersoft, Tandem, and OIS
• Research groups such as MITRE, University of
  Rhode Island, Washington University, SEI/CMU, MIT
  Lincoln Labs, Research Center Deutsche Telecom,
  Hamburg University, DSTC
• Defense Contractors including Computing Devices,
  Lockheed Martin, Boeing, McDonnell Douglas,
  Raytheon, Hughes
• Telecoms and other Domains, such as Nortel,
  Lucent, France Telecom, Telecom Italia, SEMATEC,
  Booz Allen, EDS, Alcatel, Ericsson

8
What Are We Doing?

• Chartered by OMG 1Q96
• Developed an issues white paper
• Scanned currently available realtime needs and
  technologies (generated a record response from 18
  vendors and users)
• About to issue the first OMG Request for Proposal
  for Realtime CORBA Technologies

9
Initial Technologies

• Support for Embedded Systems
• Scheduling Technology
• including predictable system performance
• Enhanced Time Service
• Flexible Communication
• also supports legacy integration

10
Near Term Work

• Fault Tolerance
• Realtime Protocols

11
Possible Longer Term Work

• Resource Monitoring Service
• ORB Reliability
• Thread Management Service
• Flexible ORB Architectures
• Other types of scheduling services
• Resource Management Services
• Realtime extensions to other CORBAServices

12
What Can We Do For You?

• Help to ensure that CORBA technology meets your
  realtime and fault tolerance needs, in your
  timeframe
• Foster an understanding on how to use CORBA for
  realtime
• _____________________________ __________________
  ___________(fill in the blank)

13
What Can You Do For Us?

• Help refine the requirements from your market
  perspective
• Let us know your timeframes
• Communicate your needs to the vendors
• Participate!