A comparison of two approaches for achieving flexible and adaptive security middleware

ABSTRACT

Open and dynamic business environments require flexible middleware that can be customized, adapted and reconfigured dynamically to face the changing environment and requirements. In this respect, the mechanism for composing middleware services with application code has an important impact on the kinds of adaptations that can be supported. This paper studies this problem in the context of security middleware. A bus-based architecture for integrating security middleware services is proposed and a qualitative comparison of the flexibility of the approach with an alternative AO-middleware-based approach is presented.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.4 Distributed Systems
          Subjects: Distributed applications

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
        D.2.11 Software Architectures

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.5 Security and Protection (D.4.6, K.4.2)

General Terms:
Design, Security

Keywords:
aspect-oriented programming, composition, messaging, middleware, security service bus