For my master thesis I'm developing an application framework for selling tickets for large events. My main requirements are modifiability, scalability and performance. My clients (event organisers) should be able to easily replace a component at runtime and add functionality. An example of such a component could be the seat assignment component.
My mentors said to look at OSGi. The idea of loosely coupled bundles is certainly appealing. When looking for alternatives I discovered Akka. This framework promises a lot of things, like scalability and high performance. I wondered if Akka's concept of actors suits my modifiability requirements. Akka seems more productive than OSGi, so development would be faster. Akka also seems more fit for scalability. With OSGi I would have a harder time.
If you have experience in both OSGi and Akka, which would you recommend for me? What are the pro and cons of both technologies when comparing them? And finally, are there are any good alternatives to OSGi or Akka that cover my requirements?
EDIT
First, thank you for the replies so far, you're a great help. As mentioned below, I'm trying to compare apples and pears. A more logical question would be: How can OSGi and Akka be used together and benefit from each other? How is this structured? Do all your actors reside in one OSGi bundle, do they each get a separate bundle, is there a hybrid solution or isn't there really a 'right' way to do it?
EDIT bis
I posted a follow up question here, asking how to combine OSGi and Akka.
As Peter says they are not directly comparable. In fact you can use them together and they should be quite complementary.
Akka provides an asynchronous communications API. OSGi provides a modular, service-oriented framework. There is nothing in Akka, for example, that would solve the problem of isolating modules so that they cannot have visibility of each others' internals. Likewise there is nothing in OSGi quite like the async communications provided by Akka. So use them together and you get the best of both worlds...
OSGi does have synchronous Services, which are the principal method of communication between modules in a single JVM. OSGi also has a Remote Services layer that can be used for communication between remote machines. This is probably the area where OSGi and Akka most directly overlap, I suppose. But even here I think there is potential for cooperation. For example, OSGi Remote Services has a really powerful discovery mechanism that allows us to advertise capabilities on the network. You could possibly use this discovery to find Akka actors that are available for you to communicate with.
I'm not aware of anybody actually working on this as present, so I think that exploring and expanding on this idea would be an excellent topic for a master's thesis!
Which university do you attend? The OSGi Alliance is very interested in fostering links with the academic community, perhaps we could set up an online meeting with you and your professor?
I think you compare apple and pears. You can run Scala code on OSGi (though their binary compatibility is horrible).
Scala is a programming language, and Akka a messaging library. OSGi is a dynamic component system. So not sure how you can compare them
I agree with both Neil and Peter, you're asking us to make a comparison between apples and oranges. You can use both frameworks together. I'm currently working on a project with the same main requirements you specified. I'm creating a prototype that demonstrates using both technologies together, OSGi to provide modularity and updatability, and Akka to provide scalability and performance.
They aren't an apples to apples comparison. They are Orthogonal to each other and, if anything, complement each other. Use both.
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20122538/component-based-application-with-scalability-in-mind-osgi-or-akka