A Java Middleware for Guaranteeing Privacy of Distributed Tuple Spaces

Lorenzo Bettini, Rocco De Nicola

Abstract

The tuple space communication model, such as the one used in Linda, provides great flexibility for modeling concurrent,
distributed and mobile processes. In a distributed setting with mobile agents, particular attention is needed for protecting sites
and information. We have designed and developed a Java middleware, Klava, for implementing distributed tuple spaces and operations to
support agent interaction and mobility. In this paper, we extend the Klava middleware with cryptographic primitives that enable
encryption and decryption of tuple fields. We describe the actual implementation of the new primitives and provide a few examples.
The proposed extension is general enough to be applied to similar Java frameworks using multiple distributed tuples spaces possibly
dealing with mobility.