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 === Ambient References ===
+Ambient references are a novel remote object reference mechanism. Remote object references are "pointers across the network" and are a frequently recurring abstraction in both distributed OO languages and distributed middleware. Ambient references are designed to refer to objects in [[research:terms:monets|mobile networks]]. What exactly constitutes a mobile network and how it differs from traditional, stationary networks is described [[research:terms:monets|elsewhere]].
+== Motivation ==
+One may wonder why new referencing abstractions are required for mobile networks. In order to motivate the need for new referencing abstractions at the language level, we list a number of desirable properties of remote references for mobile networks which current remote referencing abstractions do not offer:
+  - **Provisional References**: remote references should be able to point to remote objects which are "not yet available" in the network. This is founded on the observation that in [[research:terms:monets|mobile networks], ambient resources
+  - **Resilience to Partial Failure**:
+  - **Transitory Addressing**:
+  - **Group Communication**:
 == Design ==
+Ambient references unify two concepts: they are both a peer-to-peer discovery channel //and// an asynchronous communication channel to a remote object.
 == Example Usage ==