Overview
ISO/IEC 13235-1:1998 - Information technology - Open Distributed Processing (ODP) - Trading function: Specification (Part 1) - defines the architecture and specifications for an ODP trading function. The trading function provides a standardized way for distributed systems to advertise (export) and discover (import) services dynamically and openly. The standard supplies enterprise, information and computational specifications for traders (objects that implement the trading function) and sets out conformance requirements - but it does not prescribe engineering or implementation techniques.
Key topics and technical requirements
- Trading function scope
- Enterprise specification: roles, communities, activities, policies and structuring rules for trading in ODP environments.
- Information specification: formal schemas (in Z) including invariant, static and dynamic schemata describing service descriptions and constraints.
- Computational specification: interface signatures, data types, exceptions and abstract/functional interfaces for trader objects (ODP-IDL based).
- Conformance requirements: conformance classes (query, simple, stand-alone, linked, proxy, full-service) and conformance testing guidance.
- Core concepts
- Export (advertise a service with descriptive metadata and a location).
- Import (query the trader for services matching criteria, returning interface locations).
- Federation: linking traders to extend scope and enable discovery across partitions; support for interceptors when needed.
- Policy and dynamic property evaluation: mechanisms to express constraints and preferences when matching offers to requests.
- Normative annexes
- Annex A: ODP-IDL module specifications.
- Annex B: Constraint language BNF.
- Annex C: Constraint recipe language.
- Annex D: Service Type Repository (informative).
Practical applications and users
- Who uses it:
- System architects and enterprise architects designing service-oriented, open distributed systems.
- Middleware and directory service developers implementing trader-like registries, brokers or service registries.
- Standards bodies and integrators ensuring interoperable discovery/federation across heterogeneous platforms.
- Typical applications:
- Dynamic service registries and service brokers in large-scale distributed environments.
- Federated service discovery across organizational or technology boundaries.
- Environments requiring late binding to services and policy-driven matching of service offers and requests.
Related standards (short)
- RM-ODP family: ISO/IEC 10746-1/2/3 (Reference Model of ODP).
- ISO/IEC 14750 (ODP Interface Definition Language).
- Alignment noted with the OMG Trading Object Service.
Keywords: ISO/IEC 13235-1, ODP trading function, trader, service discovery, export/import, federated traders, ODP-IDL, constraint language, service registry, conformance.