A Generalized Approach for Non-intrusive Real-time Instrumentation of Standards-based Distributed Middleware

This paper presents a generalized approach for non-intrusive, real-time instrumentation of standards-based distributed middleware for analytical purposes. The approach is implemented in a tool named the Standards-based Distributed Middleware Monitor (SDMM). SDMM uses dynamic binary instrumentation as the method to extract values and other data passed between endpoints. Using dynamic instrumentation allows SDMM to capture information without a priori knowledge of the distributed application under instrumentation. We applied SDMM to applications written in two standards-based middleware, the Data Distribution Service (DDS) and gRemote Procedure Call (gRPC). We show that the data collection process accounts for less than 1% of the performance overhead for both DDS and gRPC case studies.