Building groups dynamically: A CORBA group self-design service

Abstract

This paper focuses on CORBA object group services. Our aim is to provide a Group Self-Design (GSD) protocol which enables a dynamic and autonomous construction of groups. From a global point of view, the GSD protocol enables the system to be organised into a tree-structure whose nodes are groups. From a local point of view, it enables a group to be sub-divided autonomously and independently of the others. This paper presents the GSD protocol and proposes an implementation of this protocol on top of CORBA. The advantages of our GSD approach are illustrated through an application to the task allocation problem in Open Information Systems (OIS).