This paper introduces the notion of self-specializing mobile code, a program that is transmitted over a network and automatically customizes itself to its destination. The benefits of this approach, higher performance without compromising safety, is accomplished through a combination of program specialization and program verification. We show how self-specializing mobile code can be used to create an adaptive network service, i.e., a service that is transmitted to a destination, where it adapts itself with respect to properties it detects on the destination node. We have designed and implemented an active network, called FASTnet, that is Fast, Adaptive, Safe, and Typed. FASTnet is based on the PLANet active network, but accommodates adaptive network services. Experimental results show adaptive network services can run over 4 times faster than normal network services without compromising the safety of the network.
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