ACL Message-Oriented Agent Communication and Migration

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Chen ◽  
David D. Linz ◽  
Harry H. Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Data Processing ◽  
Mobile Agent ◽  
Development Effort ◽  
Agent Communication ◽  
Agent Platform ◽  
Agent Systems ◽  
Agent Communication Language ◽  
Platform Architecture ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Agent Migration

This article presents an approach for inter-agent communication and inter-platform agent migration based on IEEE FIPA (Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents) Agent Communication Language (ACL) messages. The promising features of IEEE FIPA standards that support open, flexible, and interoperable agent communication and migration are discussed in the paper. Messages for agent communication and migration, platform architecture that deliver and manage these messages, and the main procedure of processing a mobile agent message are also introduced. An application example, in which a mobile agent visits multiple hosts and travels via mobile agent messages, simulates a mobile agent for remote data processing. This example shows the feasibility, simplicity, and openness of the presented approach for mobile agent migration. Using FIPA ACL messages for agent migration in FIPA compliant agent systems simplifies agent platform, reduces development effort, and easily achieves inter-platform migration through well-designed communication mechanisms provided in the agent platform.

A SECURITY BASED MODEL FOR MOBILE AGENT SOFTWARE SYSTEMS

2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (04) ◽  
pp. 719-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
HAIPING XU ◽  
ZHIGUO ZHANG ◽  
SOL M. SHATZ
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Agent ◽  
Mobile Agents ◽  
Software Systems ◽  
Agent Communication ◽  
Agent Model ◽  
Agent Systems ◽  
Design Error ◽  
Mobile Agent Systems ◽  
High Level ◽  
Agent Migration

Security modeling for agents has been one of the most challenging issues in developing practical mobile agent software systems. In the past, researchers have developed mobile agent systems with emphasis either on protecting mobile agents from malicious hosts or protecting hosts from malicious agents. In this paper, we propose a security based mobile agent system architecture that provides a general solution to protecting both mobile agents and agent hosts in terms of agent communication and agent migration. We present a facilitator agent model that serves as a middleware for secure agent communication and agent migration. The facilitator agent model, as well as the mobile agent model, is based on agent-oriented G-nets — a high level Petri net formalism. To illustrate our formal modeling technique for mobile agent systems, we provide an example of agent migration to show how a design error can be detected.

Component Agent Systems

2011 ◽  
pp. 95-114
Author(s):  
Paulo Marques
Keyword(s):  
Technology Adoption ◽  
Network Management ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Mobile Agent ◽  
Mobile Agents ◽  
Agent Platform ◽  
Agent Systems ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
Mobile Agent Systems ◽  
The Future

One central problem preventing widespread adoption of mobile agents as a code structuring primitive is that current mainstream middleware implementations do not convey it simply as such. In fact, they force all the development to be centered on mobile agents, which has serious consequences in terms of software structuring and, in fact, technology adoption. This chapter discusses the main limitations of the traditional platform-based approach, proposing an alternative: component-based mobile agent systems. Two case studies are discussed: the JAMES platform, a traditional mobile agent platform specially tailored for network management, and M&M, a component-based system for agent-enabling applications. Finally, a bird’s eye perspective on the last 15 years of mobile agent systems research is presented along with an outlook on the future of the technology. The authors hope that this chapter brings some enlightenment on the pearls and pitfalls surrounding this interesting technology and ways for avoiding them in the future.

Component Agent Systems

2009 ◽  
pp. 3300-3319
Author(s):  
Paulo Marques ◽  
Luís Silva
Keyword(s):  
Technology Adoption ◽  
Network Management ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Mobile Agent ◽  
Mobile Agents ◽  
Agent Platform ◽  
Agent Systems ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
Mobile Agent Systems ◽  
The Future

One central problem preventing widespread adoption of mobile agents as a code structuring primitive is that current mainstream middleware implementations do not convey it simply as such. In fact, they force all the development to be centered on mobile agents, which has serious consequences in terms of software structuring and, in fact, technology adoption. This chapter discusses the main limitations of the traditional platform-based approach, proposing an alternative: component-based mobile agent systems. Two case studies are discussed: the JAMES platform, a traditional mobile agent platform specially tailored for network management, and M&M, a component-based system for agent-enabling applications. Finally, a bird’s eye perspective on the last 15 years of mobile agent systems research is presented along with an outlook on the future of the technology. The authors hope that this chapter brings some enlightenment on the pearls and pitfalls surrounding this interesting technology and ways for avoiding them in the future.

Embeddable Mobile-C for Runtime Support of Code Mobility in Multi-Agent Systems

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Cheng Chou ◽  
David Ko ◽  
Harry H. Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Operating Systems ◽  
Mobile Agent ◽  
Mobile Agents ◽  
Distributed Applications ◽  
Multi Agent Systems ◽  
Agent Platform ◽  
Agent Systems ◽  
Code Mobility ◽  
Mobile Agent Systems ◽  
Multi Agent

Agent technology is emerging as an important concept for the development of distributed complex systems. A number of mobile agent systems have been developed in the last decade. However, most of them were developed to support only Java mobile agents. Furthermore, many of them are standalone platforms. In other words, they were not designed to be embedded in a user application to support the code mobility. In order to provide distributed applications with the code mobility, this article presents a mobile agent library, the Mobile-C library. The Mobile-C library is supported by various operating systems including Windows, Unix, and real-time operating systems. It has a small footprint to meet the stringent memory capacity for a variety of mechatronic and embedded systems. This library allows a Mobile-C agency, a mobile agent platform, to be embedded in a program to support C/C++ mobile agents. Functions in this library facilitate the development of a multi-agent system that can easily interface with a variety of hardware devices.

A Secure Migration Protocol for Mobile Agent Systems

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Najmus Saqib Malik ◽  
David Ko ◽  
Harry H. Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Agent ◽  
Mobile Agents ◽  
Migration Process ◽  
Agent Platform ◽  
Agent Systems ◽  
Mobile Agent Systems ◽  
Automation Systems ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Secure Shell

This paper describes a secure migration process of mobile agents between agencies. Mobile-C is an IEEE Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA) standard compliant multi-agent platform for supporting C/C++ mobile and stationary agents. This secure migration process is inspired from Secure Shell (SSH). Before migration, both agencies authenticate each other using public key authentication. After successful authentication, an encrypted mobile agent is transferred and its integrity is verified. Mobile-C is specially designed for mechatronic and factory automation systems where, for correct system operations, agencies must accept mobile agents from trusted agencies. For this reason, the emphasis is on strong authentication of both agencies involved in migration process. Security aspects of other popular mobile agent systems are described briefly. A comparison study with SSH protocol is performed and future work is elaborated.

Location-Transparent Mobile Agent Communication

2011 ◽  
Vol 225-226 ◽  
pp. 1054-1058 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi Cong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Agent ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Communication Model ◽  
Message Delivery ◽  
Agent System ◽  
Agent Communication ◽  
Exchange Information ◽  
Agent Migration

The mobile agent research has become a hot topic. It is an agent’s fundamental functionality to effectively exchange information with others. In a Mobile Agent System (MAS), the location transparency is critical for inter-agent communications. This paper presented a location-transparent communication model by describing the process of agent migration, inter-agent communication and message delivery. To wrap up the discussion, the author suggested the direction of related future research work.

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