Abstract: A system for routing an "object" (in the sense that object means an abstraction that encapsulates data in a known way, with a known list of operations or methods to access the data, and the object has a unique identity, is mobile, and possibly persistent). The "object" is routed in a distributed computing system along an action path (itself an "object") which defines the logical path to be traversed by the object. The action path consists of action stops naming or describing functionally principals (people or automated mechanisms) required to act upon the routed object in a prescribed order. The object routing system propagates the object along this action path, and monitors and controls its progress until it completes the path. The system includes mechanisms of dispatching the routed object between principals, finding the principals required to act on the routed object, notifying the principals in turn of their required action, and potentially relocating the routed object to the nodes of the principals.

Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for locating mobile objects in a distributed network having a large number of nodes connected by a communication network, each object supported by a stable storage server. The system uses either a two level or three level method to provide reliable and economical location of objects. The levels are increasingly expensive, but increasingly reliable. In the first level, address descriptors or forwarding addresses are used to retrace the mobile object's movements from node to node, each node ideally having an address descriptor indicating the location of the next node to which the object moved. If this strategy fails, the second level (which is more expensive and more reliable than the first) is used and includes accessing stable storage to find a current address descriptor for the object. If the object still cannot be located, the most expensive and most reliable level is used, i.e., a universal name service.