Location-independent naming for virtual distributed software repositories

A location-independent naming system for network resources has been designed to facilitate organization and description of software components accessible through a virtual distributed repository. This naming system enables easy and efficient searching and retrieval, and it addresses many of the consistency, authenticity, and integrity issues involved with distributed software repositories by providing mechanisms for grouping resources and for authenticity and integrity checking. This paper details the design of the naming system, describes a prototype implementation of some of the capabilities, and describes how the system fits into the development of the National HPCC Software Exchange, a virtual software repository that has the goal of providing access to reusable software components for high-performance computing.