Message Broker

The hub-and-spoke pattern of integration architectures.

Definition

The Message Broker realizes the hub-and-spoke architecture: instead of every application knowing all the others, all talk to the broker. It decouples senders from receivers, applies the canonical model and routing logic, and cuts the number of interfaces from N×(N-1) to N. Not to be confused with a plain message-queue broker, which performs no application-level translation or routing.

Origin

Described as the "Message Broker" pattern in Enterprise Integration Patterns by Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Woolf (Addison-Wesley, 2003).

Example in context

Five ERPs and three WMSes each connect once to the broker; adding a new partner creates only one interface to the hub, leaving existing systems untouched.

Related terms

• Canonical Data Model — the pivot format the broker applies.
• Content-Based Router — the internal dispatch logic.