On Calculi for Context-Aware Coordination

Modern distributed computing demands unprecedented levels of dynamicity and reconfiguration. Mobile computing, peer-to-peer networks, computational grids, multi-agent systems, are examples of domains exhibiting a continuously changing system configuration. In these settings, the context where computation occurs is not only dynamically changing, but also affecting the components’ behavior in a fundamental way, by enabling or inhibiting some of their actions. This paper is a first step in laying the formal foundation for a process calculi specification style that: i) fosters a coordination approach by sharply separating the process behavior from the computational context defined by system changes; ii) enables the specifier to define her notion of context and the rules governing how it affects the application process behavior.