Supporting dynamic QoS management functions in a reflective middleware platform

Abstract

Reflection has recently been applied in a variety of settings to introduce more openness and flexibility into designs. The paper builds on the authors' previous work in applying reflection to the design of middleware platforms by considering the role of reflection in supporting the dynamic QoS management functions of monitoring and adaptation. It is argued that reflection provides strong support for such functions and, indeed, the approach offers important benefits over alternative implementation strategies. A pilot implementation of a QoS management scheme is discussed and evaluated, and examples of the use of this approach are given.