Thursday, February 5, 1998, Volen 101, 2:10-3:10 p.m.
A major challenge of system software research is to provide methods to develop extensible and adaptable system software without compromising security or degrading performance. Current research suggests techniques for downloading programs into the system along with security mechanisms such as Sand boxing and Proof-Carrying Code (PCC). This talk examines a third approach, which is develop a Domain-Specific Language (DSL) that can be downloaded into the system. We'll see how a DSL language can provide programmability, security and efficiency, but also that it provides a methodology for development. This issues are explored through an experiment in the context of Active Networks (ANs). The goal of the AN is to provide the ability to download user programs into the network to control packet forwarding. The experiment demonstrates how partial evaluation (PE) can be effectively used to achieve efficient implementations through run-time compilation of a DSL for ANs. We give overall system performance results for a DSL implementation of a network bridge using PE for run-time compilation. We also show how programs are written in an extension to the PLAN language (the DSL) and some properties that can be proven about this programs.
Host: Liuba Shrira