Safe ambients: Abstract machine and distributed implementation

The abstract machine PAN for a distributed implementation of an ambient calculus is presented. PAN is different from, and simpler than, previous implementations of ambient-like calculi, mainly because: the underlying calculus is typed Safe Ambients (SA) rather than the untyped Ambient calculus and therefore does not present certain forms of interferences among processes (the grave interferences). In PAN the logical structure of an ambient system and its physical distribution are separated. A translation from SA terms to PAN terms is defined. The correctness of such a translation, which asserts that an SA term and its translation exhibit the same observational behavior, is proved. Moreover, a description of a distributed implementation of the abstract machine in Java is given.