Introduction: Object Request Broker (ORB)
An Object Request Broker (ORB) manages the interaction between clients and servers, using the Internet InterORB Protocol (IIOP). It enables clients to make requests and receive responses from servers in a network-distributed environment. The ORB provides a framework for clients to locate objects in the network and to call operations on those objects as if the remote objects are located in the same running process as the client, providing location transparency.
WAS uses an ORB to manage communication between client applications and server applications as well as communication among product components.