Value type-based smart proxies: a concept for adaptable distributed applications

Distributed applications often require the ability to dynamically adapt to new and changing environmental factors. For example, nodes offering a specific service can fail, requiring the client to reroute its messages to another instance offering the same service. In this paper, we describe how to use the concept of value types for the realization of smart proxies. After a brief introduction to the basic concepts, we present our solution and discuss possible application scenarios. CORBA, a common and well-established distributed objects middleware, is used as a practical foundation for our approach.