A coordination approach to mobile components

We present a calculus for mobile systems, the main novel feature of which is the separation between dynamic and topological aspects of distributed computations. Our calculus realises the following basic assumptions: (1) every computation executes in a uniquely determined location, (2) processes modify the distributed structure by means of predefined operations, (3) the underlying programming language can be changed easily, and (4) locations are hierarchically organised. This paper introduces our calculus, and shows, that this separation of concerns leads to a perfect match between the logical, syntactical and algebraic theory. We discuss a core calculus, and extensions with local names and with multiple names.