Evaluation of middleware architecture and desirable characteristics design for adaptive middleware in RFID application

Abstract

Middleware is a layer of the software that connects and manages application components running on distributed hosts. Several types of middleware are reflective middleware, eventbased middleware, object-oriented middleware, and message-oriented middleware. Adaptive middleware is part of reflective middleware, that allows the system’s behavior to be altered at run time to better match the system’s current operating environment (e.g. whether the system is being debugged or operating in a real-time environment or in a secure environment). Many vendors develop the middleware as distributed software. Sun, IBM, CORBA, Microsoft and Sybase provide its own architecture in many purposes such as in communication, manufactory, medical, and financial application. IBM offered the RFID infrastructure which had adaptive characteristics. It supported multiple RFID reader devices and minimized network overload. In Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) application in particular, middleware is implemented for increasing the system performance in network communication, coordination, reliability, scalability, and heterogeneity. RFID application is used to process data sent to and received from radio frequency identification (RFID) devices such as RFID readers, writers, and printers. Non adaptive system can not modify its behavior in response to change in new situation and disturbances, so by design of adaptive middleware in RFID application, can increase the system’s performance; more flexible, robust and can adapt to disturbances. This paper presents the detail study of existing middleware architectures and concludes with essential desirable design characteristics for adaptive middleware in RFID application.