concept OpenWire protocol in category activemq

This is an excerpt from Manning's book ActiveMQ in Action. Login to get full access to this book.

Before exchanging messages over the network, we need to serialize them to a suitable form. Messages must be serialized in and out of a byte sequence to be sent over the wire using what’s known as a wire protocol. The default wire protocol used in ActiveMQ is called OpenWire. The protocol specification can be found on the ActiveMQ website (http://mng.bz/u2eT). The OpenWire protocol isn’t specific to the TCP network transport and can be used with other network protocols. Its main purpose is to be efficient and allow fast exchange of messages over the network. Furthermore, a standardized and open protocol such as OpenWire allows native ActiveMQ clients to be developed for various programming environments. This topic and a description of other wire level protocols available for ActiveMQ are covered in chapter 9.

Figure 9.1. Producer sends messages using OpenWire protocol; consumers receive messages using STOMP protocol.

13.1.4. Tuning the OpenWire protocol

It’s worth covering some of the options available on the OpenWire protocol. The OpenWire protocol is the binary format used for transporting commands over a transport (such as TCP) to the broker. Commands include messages and message acknowledgements, as well as management and control of the broker. Table 13.1 shows some OpenWire wire format parameters that are relevant to performance.