Interprocess Communication with Java in a Microsoft Windows Environment

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18489/sacj.v29i3.500

Keywords:

Java, Windows, interprocess communication

Abstract

The Java programming language provides a comprehensive set of multithreading programming techniques but currently lacks interprocess communication (IPC) facilities, other than slow socket-based communication mechanisms (which are intended primarily for distributed systems, not interprocess communication on a multicore or multiprocessor system). This is problematic due to the ubiquity of modern multicore processors, and the widespread use of Java as a programming language throughout the software development industry. This work aimed to address this problem by utilising Microsoft Windows’ native IPC mechanisms through a framework known as the Java Native Interface. This enabled the use of native C code that invoked the IPC mechanisms provided by Windows, which allowed successful synchronous communication between separate Java processes. The results obtained illustrate the performance dichotomy between socket-based communication and native IPC facilities, with Windows’ facilities providing significantly faster communication. Ultimately, these results show that there are far more effective communication structures available. In addition, this work presents generic considerations that may aid in the eventual design of a generic, platform-independent IPC system for the Java programming language. The fundamental considerations include shared memory with semaphore synchronisation, named pipes and a socket communication model.

Downloads

Published

2017-12-08

Issue

Vol. 29 No. 3 (2017)

Section

Research Papers (general)

License

Copyright of all work published here subsists in the authors. While SACJ retains right of first publication, subsequent re-publication is expressly permitted provided the original SACJ publication is acknowledged and cited, according to the terms detailed below. If plagiarism is detected during review, a paper may be summarily rejected and will not be accepted unless even minor infringements are corrected. Should plagiarism be detected after a paper is published, the Editor reserves the right to withdraw a paper from publication. We expect authors to be honest in representing work as their own, and to respect the time and effort our reviewers put in without an undue burden of policing plagiarism, and hence take violations seriously. SACJ applies the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all papers published in this journal. Authors who publish with SACJ agree to the following:
  1. Authors retain copyright and grant SACJ right of first publication. The work is additionally licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License that requires others who share the work to acknowledge the work’s authorship and initial publication in SACJ. Should anyone else wish to make commercial use of the work, SACJ cedes the right to the author to negotiate terms and does not expect to be paid any royalties.
  2. Authors may enter into additional arrangements for non-exclusive distribution of the SACJ-published version of the work (e.g., post it to a repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are required to refrain from posting their work online prior to completion of reviews so as not to compromise double-blind reviewing or confuse plagiarism checks.