A linguistic approach to inter-node communication in functionally distributed systems

This paper presents a general framework for the definition of properties of communication mechanisms in a functionally distributed system. The design of communication mechanisms is addressed from a linguistic point of view and in particular the issues related to their integration in an existing programming language are discussed. Among these topics we consider the expression of the virtual node within the language, in terms of structuring and modularization constructs, and the integration of communication schemes. We discuss also some of the dynamic properties of a functionally distributed system, trying again to stress the aspects of the integration of communication mechanisms in a high level language. We use temporal logic as a framework in which semantic properties of the existing programming language and of the communication mechanisms can be integrated to be able to deal with the properties of a functionally distributed system.