Ambient calculus: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Ambient calculus is a form of notation devised by Luca Cardelli and Andrew D. Gordon in 1998 and used to describe and theorise about mobile systems. It is used to model interactions in such systems as the Internet.

Some more general categories that the calculus belongs to (or related with) are: process algebra, programming language, theoretical computer science, lambda calculus, type theory.

The three basic ambient primitives, namely in, out, and open are expressive enough to simulate name-passing channels in the pi-calculus. On the other hand, the synchronous nature of the three actions is a difficulty in adopting this model as the programming language core for mobile and distributed computing.