JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1, JANUARY 2011, ISSN 2151‐9617 

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Flexible, Secure and Fault-Tolerant Data

Transfer using Distributed
Publisher/Subscriber Cluster Model
Latha Sadanandam and Swetha M Rao

Abstract—Integration of systems in heterogeneous environment is one of the most pressing issues for organizations.
Reliable messaging is critical in this context. A messaging framework that guarantees message delivery even in the presence
of software and network failures is in high need. In this paper, we discuss the available options and implications of employing
Message Oriented Middleware to implement reliable messaging for distributed architectures. In this paper we investigate the
capacity of publisher/subscriber cluster model.In doing so, we contribute to the understanding in framing an architecture for
heterogeneous data transfer which is flexible, scalable and secured.

Index Terms— Cluster, Distributed system, Fault-Tolerant, Middleware, Message Oriented Middleware, Point-to-point
Messaging, Publisher, Subscriber, etc.,

——————————  ——————————
1. INTRODUCTION
 
The exchange of information between disparate
applications in complex environment is emerging
as a powerful robust high capacity integration
methodology using techniques such as RPC,
CORBA and other distributed application and
client server architectures. Many of these
operations are synchronized in nature.
Message oriented middleware provides Redundancy - Several machines can provide the
asynchronous method of exchanging information.
Websphere MQ provides a queuing facility that
will store and forward messages to applications
that may not be in operation at the same time.
Publisher Subscriber is a messaging paradigm for
asynchronous messaging without the participating
applications being aware of each other. It is
intended for situations where a message has to be
distributed to multiple applications
heterogeneous environment. This decoupling of
publisher and subscriber model provides
flexibility, scalability and security [12].
2. DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM
A distributed system consists of multiple software
components that is on heterogeneous environment,
but run as a single system. The computers that are
in a distributed system can be connected locally
through a network, or they can be in different
geographical locations that are connected across
network. The goal of distributed system is to make
such a network work as a single computer [3].
Distributed systems have many benefits over
centralized systems, including the following:
Scalability - The system can easily be expanded by
adding more machines as needed.
same services, by maintaining workload balancing.
Even if one system is unavailable, the operation
does not stop. Additionally, many smaller
machines can be used for the same services, this
redundancy is not prohibitively expensive.
3. WHY MIDDLEWARE
In Distributed system, it becomes necessary to
in share information between heterogeneous
applications.
Middleware is software that connects software
components or applications in a distributed
environment. The software connects the processes
running on multiple systems through service
enabled network. This technology supports
interoperability in distributed architectures, which
are used to support and simplify complex,
distributed applications.
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4. WEBS
SPHERE MQ AS A MIDDLE
EWARE

A messag ge queuing (M
MQ) infrastruccture built on
n
WebSpherre MQ technology providess an available,,
reliable, scalable, seecure, and maintainablee
transport for messages with guaranteeed once-onlyy
delivery.
WebSpherre MQ infrasstructure can be designed d
using a wide
w range off programminng paradigmss
and langu uages. These applications can executee
within a substantial array of software
s and
d
hardware environmentss.

Webspherre MQ supp ports asynchhronous dataa

transfer by
y providing a queuing faccility that willl Fig.1 Poiint‐To‐Point Messaaging 
store the message and d forward it from sourcee
n to be deelivered to a destination
application n This “First In, First Out” (FIFO
O) technique makes
m
application
n although it is not in operation at thee the second
s througgh nth messagees endure unttil that
same timee. first message is consumed. In thhis case a conssumer
waitiing for a messsage of its in
nterest has too wait
5. DATA
A TRANSFER APPROACHES
A S IN untill all precedin
ng messages either expire or is
WEBSSPHERE MQ consumed by otheer consumer.

Webspherre MQ uses various approaaches for dataa Therre is only onee consumer fo or a given meessage.
transfer su
uch as Manny consumers can receive on n a queue, buut only
one consumer
c takees delivery of a specific message.
 oint-to-point Messaging
Po M The same messaage cannot be b broadcasteed to
 C
Cluster Messagging multtiple consum mers. The message
m willl be
 Pu
ublisher Subsccriber Messag
ging model perm
manently remo oved from thee queue when n it is
beingg acknowledg ged by the con nsumer. No on ne else
In this paper
p an asy ynchronous data transferr sees it and no one else receives it.
i
approach is identified, in which the consumer hass
an option n of selecting required message.
m Thee An unread
u messag
ge can be readd by any conssumer.
approach also provid des a securedd and fault-- Hencce the messagee is unsecured
d.
tolerant daata transfer meechanism.
5.2 CLUSTER
5.1 POINTT-TO-POINT MESSAGING
A WebSphere
W MQQ cluster is just
j a collectiion of
The Point--to-point (PTP
P) messaging model
m ensuress Queu ue Managers that share a common nameespace
that a message is delivvered only onnce to a singlee with
h any-to-any co
onnectivity. A queue of a Queue
Q
consumer.. A prod ducer generaates multiplee Mannager can be sh
hared in the cluster.
c This in
n turn
messages, where all the messages will bee enab
bles workloaad distributio on and dyn namic
consumedd by the consum mers in FIFO fashion.
f routiing.
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In cluster every Queuee Manager sh hould have a regisstered subscrribers is thee responsibiliity of
unique naame and it can n be part of any
a cluster. A WebSphere MQ Pu ub/Sub.
message will be bro oadcasted to o all Queuee
Managers in the cluster.. In a publish/subsscribe system
m, a publisherr need
not know who uses the in nformation th
hat it
vides, and a subscriber
prov s neeed not know
w who
prov
vides the inforrmation that it
i consumed as
a the
resullt of a subscrip
ption.

This decoupling of publisheer and subsscriber

applications allow
ws for greaterr scalability and
a a
moree dynamic nettwork topology.

Withh respect to a given to opic, or piece of

inforrmation, all po
ossible combin
nations of
Publlishers/subscrribers are posssible, that is:

– Infformation abo
out each topicc may be pro ovided
Fig.2 Cluster Me
essaging  by a single or multtiple publishin
ng application
ns

While defiining cluster th

he name and location
l of thee – Th
he information
n may be receiived and proccessed
Queue Manager
M has tot be known n, hence it iss by on
ne or more sub
bscribing applications
tightly cou
upled.
6. DISTRIBUTED
D PUBLISHER
R SUBSCRIBE
ER
Any messaage produced by the producer reaches alll CLUSTER MODEL
O
the consummers in the cluster.
c There is no way off
abstracting
g the messagee to specific co
onsumers in a Distrributed Publissher Subscribeer Cluster Mo odel is
cluster. a set of Queu ue Managerss that are fully
interrconnected. Th he Queue Maanagers withiin the
Every meessage produ uced is unseccure as it iss clustter can exist on
o physically separate
s comp
puters
broadcasteed to all Queu
ue Managers which can bee withh different operrating systemss [7] [8].
consumedd by all.
Queu ue Managers can commu unicate with other
5.3 PUBLISHER SUB
BSCRIBER MO
ODEL Queu ue Managers on the clustter using pub blisher
subscriber system,, so that consuumers can subbscribe
Applicatioons that prod duce informaation about a he topic publisshed by anoth
to th her Queue Maanager
particular subject are referred to as publishers. in th
he cluster. Info
ormation is pu
ublished to a reemote
Applicatioons that conssume this infformation aree Queu ue Manager only if that remote Queue Q
referred tot as subscribbers. The info ormation and d Man nager has subsccribed to that topic.
subjects are manageed by Web bSphere MQ Q
Publish/S Subscribe (Pu ub/Sub). Thee subject iss A Queue
Q Manageer collects alll the subscrip ptions
referred tot as a topicc. Subscribing g applicationss creatted for a topicc either from local applicatio
ons or
register th
heir intention to
t receive infoormation from
m from
m other Queeue Managerss. An application
particular topics with WebSphere MQ M Pub/Sub. publlishes informaation on a top pic. The host Queue
Q
Publishing g applicationns then send d information n manaager which holds the to opic forward ds the
about top pics to WebS Sphere MQ Pub/Sub.
P Thee messsage to all reemote Queuee managers having h
managemeent and distrib bution of the information
i to
o valid
d subscriptionss for that topicc.
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The authorization in publisher/subscriber model is
assured. When a Queue Manager sends any
publications or subscriptions to any other Queue
Manager which has valid subscriptions, it sets its
own identity in the message, and uses its own
authority to put the message. This means that the
Queue Manager can put message on other Queue
Manager’s queue (Remote Queue) only if it has
authority for the same. This assures that
authorization checks are performed at the
publisher’s or subscriber’s local Queue Manager.
The publish/subscribe Queue Managers are
interconnected in nature, which makes the proxy
subscription to propagate to all the nodes in the
network. The consequence of this is that once a
subscription has been made for a remote
publication, the information is not necessarily
received immediately as it propagates through all
nodes in the network.
A Queue Manager in WebSphere MQ can be a
member of more than one publish/subscribe
cluster. The scope of proxy subscriptions is limited
to the single cluster in which the clustered topic is
defined. Publications are not passed from one
cluster to another using the Queue Manager as a
gateway [10].
Fig.3 Distributed Publisher Subscriber Cluster Model  Applications have the flexibility to select which
Benefits of Distributed Publisher Subscriber
Cluster Model
 
 
 Messages destined for specific Queue
Managers in the same cluster are transferred
directly to that Queue Manager and it is not
necessary to pass through an intermediate
Queue Manager. This improves performance
and optimizes the network traffic [12].
 There is no single point of failure in this
topology. If one Queue Manager is not
available, publications and subscriptions are
still able to flow through the rest of the
publish/subscribe system because each Queue
Manager is directly connected with each other
[11].
 A subscribing application in the cluster can
connect to its nearest Queue Manager, to
improve its own performance. The Queue
Manager receives all messages that match the
subscription registration of the client from all
Queue Managers within the cluster [12].
 The number of clients per Queue Manager can
be reduced by adding more Queue Manager to
the cluster to share workload. This makes a
publish/subscribe cluster topology highly
scalable [11].
7. CONCLUSION
In Point-to-point messaging, an unintended
message for an application is available and hence
level of security is low. Moreover a message read
by a consumer cannot be broadcasted to any
consumer. Cluster topology uses broadcasting
mechanism; hence the messages will flow to all the
Queue Managers in the cluster. Level of message
abstraction in cluster is low.
The Distributed Publisher Subscriber Cluster
approach provides an asynchronous data transfer.
Publishers are loosely coupled to subscribers, it is
not necessary to reveal each other’s existence. The
focus being the topic, publishers and subscribers
are allowed to remain ignorant of system topology.
messages they wish to receive, because a topic
filter can be specified to control the messages made
available. It provides a higher level of abstraction
for a meaningful exchange of data within the
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pub/sub interaction paradigm. The

[5]. Enabling content-based publish/subscribe services in
interconnection between every Queue Manager
cooperative P2P networks Duc A Tran, Cuong Pham
provides a fault tolerant topology. (2010)

[6]. Computer Networks Scalable content-based

8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
publish/subscribe services over structured peer-to-peer
networks Xiaoyu Yang, Yingwu Zhu, Yiming Hu (2007)
The authors would like to thank Mr. S V
[7]. Proceedings 15th EUROMICRO International
Subrahmanya (SVS), Vice President, Education & Conference on Parallel Distributed and NetworkBased
Research, Infosys Technologies ltd. for his Processing PDP 2007
guidance and constant encouragement.
[8]. Towards Scalable Content-based Publish-Subscribe
Networks Fengyun Cao, Jaswinder Pal Singh (2005)
Thanks are extended to Mr. Sarma KVRS and Mr.
[9]. Privacy-preserving content-based publish/subscribe
Ramprasad Patnaik for their critical review and networks Abdullatif Shikfa, Melek Önen, Refik Molva
suggestions for improvement. (2009) IFIP SEC 2009 24th International Information
Security Conference May 1820 2009

Thanks are extended to Mr. Bhargava
Chandrasekara Sastry Kugur along with all the
members of the Mainframe Education Delivery
team for the help extended during this work.
The authors would also like to acknowledge and
thank the authors and publishers of referenced
papers and textbooks, for making available their
invaluable work products which served as
excellent reference to this paper. All trademarks
and registered trademarks used in this paper are
the properties of their respective owners /
companies.
9. REFERENCES
[10]. Patrick Th. Eugster , Pascal A. Felber, Rachid
Guerraoui, Anne-Marie Kermarrec, The many faces of
publish/subscribe : ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR),
Volume 35 , Issue 2 (June 2003) Pages: 114 - 131, 2003
[11]. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wmqv7/v7
r0/index.jsp
[12]. WebSphere MQ V7.0 Features and Enhancements –
IBM Redbooks.
First Latha Sadanandam, Lead, Education & Research,
Infosys Technologies Ltd, She works in Mainframe
Technology. Area of interest includes CICS, Web services &
SOA and Middleware technologies.
Second Swetha M Rao, Systems Engineer, Education &
Research, Infosys Technologies Ltd., She works in
Mainframe Technology. Area of interest includes DB2, REXX
scripting languages and Middleware technologies.

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