Middleware

The network system implemented within the client/server technology is commonly called by the computer industry as middleware. Middleware is all the distributed software needed to allow clients and servers to interact. General middleware allows for communication, directory services, queuing, distributed file sharing, and printing. Service-specific software like ODBC. The middleware is typically composed of four layers, which are Service, Back-end Processing, Network Operating System, and Transport Stacks. The Service layer carries coded instructions and data from software applications to the Back-end Processing layer for encapsulating network-routing instructions. Next, the Network Operating System adds additional instructions to ensure that the Transport layer transfers data packets to its designated receiver efficiently and correctly. During the early stage of middleware development, the transfer method was both slow and unreliable.