Abstract
A number of recent works have investigated the notion of “computational fields” as a means of coordinating systems in distributed, dense and mobile environments such as pervasive computing, sensor networks, and robot swarms. We introduce a minimal core calculus meant to capture the key ingredients of languages that make use of computational fields: functional composition of fields, functions over fields, evolution of fields over time, construction of fields of values from neighbours, and restriction of a field computation to a sub-region of the network. This calculus can act as a core for actual implementation of coordination languages and models, as well as pave the way towards formal analysis of properties concerning expressiveness, self-stabilisation, topology independence, and relationships with the continuous space-time semantics of spatial computations.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Beal, J.: A basis set of operators for space-time computations. In: Spatial Computing Workshop (2010), http://www.spatial-computing.org/scw10/
Beal, J.: Engineered self-organization approaches to adaptive design. In: Roy, R., Shehab, E., Hockley, C., Khan, S. (eds.) 1st International Conference on Through-life Engineering Services, pp. 35–42. Cranfield University Press (November 2012)
Beal, J., Bachrach, J.: Infrastructure for engineered emergence in sensor/actuator networks. IEEE Intelligent Systems 21, 10–19 (2006)
Beal, J., Bachrach, J., Vickery, D., Tobenkin, M.: Fast self-healing gradients. In: Proceedings of ACM SAC 2008, pp. 1969–1975. ACM (2008)
Beal, J., Dulman, S., Usbeck, K., Viroli, M., Correll, N.: Organizing the aggregate: Languages for spatial computing. In: Mernik, M. (ed.) Formal and Practical Aspects of Domain-Specific Languages: Recent Developments, ch. 16, pp. 436–501. IGI Global (2013), A longer version available at: http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.5509
Beal, J., Usbeck, K., Benyo, B.: On the evaluation of space-time functions. The Computer Journal (2012), Online first, available through doi:10.1093/comjnl/bxs099
Butera, W.: Programming a Paintable Computer. PhD thesis, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA (2002)
Cardelli, L., Gardner, P.: Processes in space. In: Ferreira, F., Löwe, B., Mayordomo, E., Mendes Gomes, L. (eds.) CiE 2010. LNCS, vol. 6158, pp. 78–87. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)
Cardelli, L., Gordon, A.D.: Mobile ambients. Theoretical Computer Science 240(1), 177–213 (2000)
Igarashi, A., Pierce, B.C., Wadler, P.: Featherweight Java: A minimal core calculus for Java and GJ. ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems 23(3) (2001)
Mamei, M., Zambonelli, F.: Programming pervasive and mobile computing applications: The tota approach. ACM Trans. on Software Engineering Methodologies 18(4), 1–56 (2009)
MIT Proto, http://proto.bbn.com (retrieved January 1, 2012)
Montagna, S., Viroli, M., Fernandez-Marquez, J.L., Di Marzo Serugendo, G., Zambonelli, F.: Injecting self-organisation into pervasive service ecosystems. Mobile Networks and Applications 18(3), 398–412 (2013)
Paun, G.: Computing with membranes. Journal of Computer and System Sciences 61(1), 108–143 (2000)
Viroli, M., Beal, J., Casadei, M.: Core operational semantics of Proto. In: Proceedings of ACM SAC 2011, pp. 1325–1332. ACM (March 2011)
Viroli, M., Beal, J., Usbeck, K.: Operational semantics of proto. Science of Computer Programming 78(6), 633–656 (2013)
Viroli, M., Casadei, M., Montagna, S., Zambonelli, F.: Spatial coordination of pervasive services through chemical-inspired tuple spaces. ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems 14, 14:1–14:24 (2011)
Viroli, M., Casadei, M., Omicini, A.: A framework for modelling and implementing self-organising coordination. In: Proceedings of ACM SAC 2009, vol. III, pp. 1353–1360, March 8-12. ACM (2009)
Viroli, M., Pianini, D., Beal, J.: Linda in space-time: an adaptive coordination model for mobile ad-hoc environments. In: Sirjani, M. (ed.) COORDINATION 2012. LNCS, vol. 7274, pp. 212–229. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)
Whitehouse, K., Sharp, C., Brewer, E., Culler, D.: Hood: a neighborhood abstraction for sensor networks. In: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services. ACM Press (2004)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Viroli, M., Damiani, F., Beal, J. (2013). A Calculus of Computational Fields. In: Canal, C., Villari, M. (eds) Advances in Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing. ESOCC 2013. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 393. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-45364-9_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-45364-9_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-45363-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-45364-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)