MIDDLEWARE ABSTRACTION LAYER (MAL)

• US 20170195458A1
• Filed: 01/06/2016
• Published: 07/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (Northrop Grumman Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (Northrop Grumman Corporation)
• Inventors: Parekh, Devang R., Schaefer, Paul, Cao, Feng, Chinaka, Jason, Montgomery, Benjamin, Cao, Long, Barrera, Kathleen, Fung, Henry H., Oddo, Louis
• Granted Patent: US 10,462,262 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A middleware abstraction layer (MAL) that can include a plurality of middleware application programming interfaces (APIs). Each of the plurality of middleware APIs can be configured to implement a common programming paradigm for a plurality of different service platforms. The MAL can also include a master application programming interface (API). The master API can be configured to provide a plurality of resources for a mission specific application. Each of the plurality of resources is mapped in a registry to an API call to each of the plurality of middleware APIs. The MAL can further include a control engine configured to load an adapter for a selected a middleware API of the plurality of middleware APIs to service a resource request from the mission specific application. The selection can include examining a configuration file to determine an appropriate middleware API to handle the resource request.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium having machine readable instructions, the machine readable instructions comprising a middleware abstraction layer (MAL) comprising:

a plurality of middleware application programming interfaces (APIs), wherein each of the plurality of middleware APIs are configured to implement a common programming paradigm for a plurality of different service platforms;

a master application programming interface (API), the master API being configured to provide a plurality of resources for a mission specific application, wherein each of the plurality of resources is mapped in a registry to an API call to each of the plurality of middleware APIs; and

a control engine configured to load an adapter for a selected a middleware API of the plurality of middleware APIs to service a resource request from the mission specific application, wherein the selection includes examining a configuration file to determine an appropriate middleware API to handle the resource request.

2. The medium of claim 1, wherein the master API is configured to provide a response to the resource request to the mission specific application.

3. The medium of claim 1, wherein a first middleware API of the plurality of middleware APIs is a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) API, a second middleware API of the plurality of middleware APIs is a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) API and a third middleware API of the plurality of middleware APIs is a Java Messaging Service (JMS) API.

4. The medium of claim 1, wherein a given middleware API of the plurality of middleware APIs is a Data Grid API that interfaces with a given adapter that communicates with a given Data Grid service from a given vendor and another adapter that communicates with another Data Grid service from another vendor.

5. The medium of claim 4, wherein the given Data Grid services stores Digital Terrain and Elevation (DTED) data.

6. The medium of claim 1, wherein a given middleware API of the plurality of middleware APIs is a Data Distribution Service (DDS) API that interfaces with a given adapter that communicates with a given DDS from a given vendor and another adapater that communicates with another DDS from another vendor.

7. The medium of claim 1, wherein a given resource of the plurality of resources is mapped to a plurality of sets of API calls for each respective middleware API.

8. The medium of claim 1, wherein the adapter for the selected middleware API is further configured to convert the resource request into a plurality of API calls to the service.

9. The medium of claim 1, wherein the configuration file defines a particular middleware API of the plurality of middleware APIs to handle a particular resource request of the plurality of resource requests.

10. The medium of claim 1, wherein the selecting by the control engine is further based on an accessibility of each of the plurality of middleware APIs.

11. The medium of claim 1, wherein the adapter is further configured to cause instantiation of multiple instances of the same service that execute concurrently.

12. The medium of claim 1,

wherein a first middleware API of the plurality of middleware APIs is configured to transfer data in a hub-spoke model;

wherein a second middleware API of the plurality of middleware APIs is configured to transfer data in a Peer-to-Peer model; and

wherein a third middleware API of the plurality of middleware APIs is configured to transfer data in a shared memory model.

13. A system comprising:

a non-transitory memory to store machine readable instructions; and

a processing unit to access the memory and execute the machine readable instructions, the machine readable instructions comprising a middleware abstraction layer (MAL), the MAL comprising;

a plurality of middleware application programming interfaces (APIs) that are each configured to implement a common programming paradigm for a plurality of different services, wherein the common programming paradigm includes a transport messaging paradigm, an integrated computing mechanism paradigm and an integrated state-based data-centric paradigm;

a master application programming interface (API) configured to;

provide a plurality of resources accessible by a resource request, wherein each of the plurality of resources characterizes a generalized function that is mapped in a registry to an API call for each of the plurality of middleware APIs;

a control engine configured to load an adapter for a selected middleware API of the plurality of middleware APIs to service a resource request from a mission specific application.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the selecting is based on a predetermined configuration.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein a given middleware API of the plurality of middleware APIs is configured to provide an API for a plurality of different Data Grid services.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein a given middleware API of the plurality of middleware APIs is configured to provide an API for a plurality of different data distribution services (DDSs).

17. The system of claim 13, wherein a given middleware API of the plurality of middleware APIs is configured to provide an API for a plurality of different Data Grid services and another middleware API of the plurality of middleware APIs is configured to provide an API for a plurality of different data distribution services (DDSs).

18. A method comprising:

loading, at a middleware abstraction layer (MAL) executing on one or more computing devices, an adapter of the MAL for a particular middleware application programming interface (API) of a plurality of middleware APIs that each implement a multiple versions of a common programming paradigm on corresponding services, wherein the selecting is based on a configuration file;

receiving, at the MAL, a resource request;

converting, at the adapter of the MAL, the resource request into an API call for a particular service of the corresponding services; and

generating, at the adapter of the MAL, a response for the resource request in response to an API call response from the particular service.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the common programming paradigms includes a transport messaging paradigm, and at least one of an integrated data computing mechanism paradigm and an integrated state-based data-centric paradigm.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the selecting is further based on an accessibility of the particular middleware API.