Glossary

Access point

The netlet or node providing local access to a service.

Accounting group

Set of netlets whose resource charges are handled together.

Binding URL

A URL for invoking a binding protocol.

Binding

See service binding.

Binding protocol

A protocol for obtaining a netlet descriptor for a service access point.

Certificate

In this paper, a signed document binding a Public Key to a name.

Codebase

A collection of Jar files containing all the netlet's classes.

CRL

Certificate revocation list, a list of signed revocation statements.

Descriptor

See netlet descriptor.

Distinguished name

An X.500 name.

DTD

XML document type definition.

Facet

An alternative interface of an object that is obtained by querying the primary interface.

Hosting service

A service provided by a collection of nodes to allow remote netlet execution.

Hosting contract

The agreement under which a netlet executes on a node and is charged for it.

Jar

Java archive file format².

Jtrix

The Java matrix--an open, Internet-wide collection of nodes and netlets.

JVM

The Java virtual machine

Mediator

A node-local communication object that exports a single interface across a netlet boundary.

Netlet

An executable, context-independent component in Jtrix.

Netlet descriptor

An XML document given to a node to create a netlet.

Node

A local environment where netlets can execute and exchange services.

Parameter bean

A container for netlet creation parameters.

Principal

The holder of a public/private key pair.

Resource

A node-dependent commodity, often hardware-related (e.g. CPU, Memory, etc.)

Service

A node-independent commodity. A shared object that can be accessed from any Jtrix node.

Service binding

The process of establishing a service connection.

SHA

Secure Hashing Algorithm (NIST standard, also known as SHA-1).

Warrant

An XML documents that represents a right to use a particular service.

X.500

A CCITT³ standard for distributed directories.

X.509

A CCITT standard for digital certificates.

XML

Extensible markup language, as recommended by W3C⁴.