Case studies in security and resource management for mobile object systems

Mobile objects have gained a lot of attention in research and industry in the recent past, but they also have a long history. Security is one of the key requirements of mobile objects, and one of the most researched characteristics related to mobility. Resource management has been somewhat neglected in the past, but it is being increasingly addressed, in both the context of security and QoS. In this paper we place a few systems supporting mobile objects in perspective based upon how they address security and resource management. We start with the theoretical model of Actors that supports concurrent mobile objects in a programming environment. Then we describe task migration for the Mach microkernel, a case of mobile objects supported by an operating system. Using the OMG MASIF standard as an example, we then analyze middleware support for mobile objects. Mobile Objects and Agents (MOA) system, is an example of middleware level support based on Java. The active networks project, Conversant, supports object mobility at the communication protocol level. We summarize these projects, comparing their security and resource management, and conclude by deriving a few general observations on how security and resource management have been applied and how they might evolve in the future.