Layered Performance Modelling of a CORBA-based Distributed Application Design

With advances in distributed platforms, distributed application systems on heterogeneous platforms have become a reality. These systems are complex, with software and hardware components that are distributed geographically, sometimes globally, yet they combine to provide a single processing model. Deciding how to distribute software and hardware resources for these systems is a major challenge and is influenced by factors such as security, reliability, manageability, and performance. In this paper, we focus on the performance behaviour of a design for a CORBA-based Distributed Network Management Application. Once the design is established and the system's development begins, performance problems resulting from a poor design can be difficult and expensive to fix. We built both simulation and analytic models, and used the models to help recognize such problems early. We discuss the proposed system architecture, simulation and analytic models for the application, and extensions to the analytic models needed to support features present in the design