Java’s Remote Method Invocation is an example of a synchronous communication mechanism with a well defined protocol. Manysoftware systems require more flexibilityin their communication mech-anisms, including asynchronous communication and delayed referencing of objects (Futures). Thispaper introduces a novel mechanism allowing Java remote objects to use extended communicationprotocols without changes to the underlying wire or serialisation protocols. These extensions can beutilised bystandard remote objects without additional coding changes and can be incorporated withstandard Java clients. This paper explores the possibilities of implementing client controlled versus server controlled asynchronous communication and dynamic selection of protocols through the use of a precompiler forthe remote object classes. A discussion of the possibilityof integrating Futures and Batched Futures,and anyrequired programming abstractions, into this mechanism is conducted. It is proposed thatthis mechanism can be used in anyobject system that is based on Fragmented Objects, which use astub or proxyto provide transparent access to remote server methods.

Communication protocols in distributed object systems often do not explore the full range of possibleoptimisations due to the desire for simplicity and the maintenance of a consistent interface and underlyingprotocol. It is possible to create specialised implementations ofthese communications protocols, butgenerally these implementations are not completely compliant with the standard implementation. Thisleads to a reluctance on the part ofthe software developers to explore optimised or extended protocols. Java’s Remote Method Invocation (RMI) mechanism [5, 29] is an example ofa standardised commu- nications protocol that provides a limited set ofoptimisations. RMI provides a remote communicationsmechanism between Java clients and remote objects. Java clients obtain references to these remote objectsthrough a third party registry service. These references allow transparent access to the remote object’smethods by mirroring the remote interface. All method invocation is performed in a synchronous mannerunless explicitly subverted by the client and server implementations.