Global Accessible Objects (GAOs) in the Ambicomp Distributed Java Virtual Machine

As networked embedded sensors and actuators become more and more widespread, software developers encounter the difficulty to create applications that run distributed on these nodes: Typically, these nodes are heterogeneous, resource-limited, and there is no centralized control. The Ambicomp project tackles this problem. Its goal is to provide a distributed Java virtual machine (VM) that runs on the bare sensor node hardware. This VM creates a single system illusion across several nodes. Objects and threads can migrate freely between these nodes. In this paper, we address the problem of globally accessible objects. We describe how scalable source routing, a DHT-inspired routing protocol, can be used to allow access to objects regardless of their respective physical location and without any centralized component.