Principal Investigator:
Niranjan Suri
Research Category:
Software Agents

Project Description:
The NOMADS project aims to develop a set of distributed and agent-based systems using the Java programming language and environment.

To enable these systems, we are currently developing a new Java compatible Virtual Machine (VM) called the AromaVM. The AromaVM will provide two key enhancements over Virtual Machines popularly used: the ability to capture the execution state of threads and the ability to control resources consumed by threads. By capturing the execution state of threads, the NOMADS agent system will provide strong or transparent mobility for agents.

In addition, the resource control mechanisms can be used for controlling and allocating resources used by agents as well as to protect against denial of service attacks by malicious agents.

Adding these resource control capabilities to the access control mechanisms already provided by the new Java 2 security model significantly improves the overall security capabilities of the Java platform.