State-Of-The-Art of Messaging for Distributed Computing Systems

Abstract

Modern software applications rarely live in isolation and nowadays it is common practice to rely on services or consume information provided by remote entities. In such a distributed architecture, integration is key. Messaging, for more than a decade, is the reference solution to tackle challenges of a distributed nature, such as network unreliability, strong-coupling of producers and consumers and the heterogeneity of applications. Thanks to a strong community and a common effort towards standards and consolidation, message brokers are today the transport layer building blocks in many projects and services, both within the physics community and outside.
Moreover, in recent years, a new generation of messaging services has appeared, with a focus on low-latency and high-performance use cases, pushing the boundaries of messaging applications. This paper will present messaging solutions for distributed applications going through an overview of the main concepts, technologies and services.