Many current and emerging distributed applications require new classes of services from the next generation middleware architectures. The traditional middleware frameworks have become inadequate for next-generation service provisioning due to its poor scalability, customizability, manageability, and reliability. Challenges from existing and new types of applications, including support for multimedia, real-time requirements and mobility seems to indicate the need for defining a new architecture for open distributed systems. The new architecture should be designed from the beginning with flexibility and adaptability in mind. This can be achieved by defining an open engineering middleware platform that is run time configurable and allows inspection and adaptation of the underlying components.

This paper will examine the middleware requirements for future distributed systems including grid, RFID, and wireless sensor systems and identifies key research areas. In each area, crucial middleware research issues to support future applications that will enable seamless service provisioning in heterogeneous, dynamically varying computing and communication environments are discussed. The paper also reports on some existing research prototypes with a focus towards their suitability as next generation middleware. Furthermore, the paper proposes a research agenda for next generation middleware to cater for emerging grid, RFID and wireless sensor systems.