Using Mobile Objects as Ambassadors to Minimize Latency in World-wide Distributed Systems

In distributed systems deployed on the world-wide scale, the primary determinant of performance is latency. This technical report illustrates the importance of latency minimization in such systems by analysis of realistic world-wide distributed computing examples. It then develops a technique for distributed systems interaction — employing mobile Java objects as ambassadors, acting for clients on remote Java virtual machines — that minimizes the impact of latency on multi-operation interactions. Furthermore, the technical report demonstrates a model for distributed systems integration using ambassadors as active middleware, hence permitting latency minimization to be realized for systems including components written in languages other than Java.