Towards a Grand Unified Framework For Mobile Objects

Distributed object systems (DOS) are usually implemented as middleware which repeats and undoes a significant amount of work performed by the underlying operating system. This introduces overhead and leads to distinct, incompatible middleware implementations. Besides, applications such as databases, mobile object systems, parallel programming toolkits, and the like, implement entirely their own set of mechanisms in their run-time system or middleware. If mobility and replication rely on common techniques and mechanisms no matter the application domain, why are they not shared? We believe that, behind it all, the reason is the inadequate support that existing operating systems offer for mobility, replication, and DOS in general. The lack of proper support promotes ad-hoc solutions and discourages sharing. We propose a different organization in which operating system and middleware cooperate to support efficient distributed object systems. A flexible microkernel is responsible for secure..