An evolving wire-level protocol that defines how distributed objects communicate with each other. IIOP--which is similar to Microsoft's Distributed Common Object Model (DCOM) specification--is based around the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). In theory, any IIOP-compliant client software on any platform will be able to access the same object, a programming function that performs a specific task (such as authenticating a user against a server).
(See Internet Messaging ).