Infrastructure for mobile agents: Requirements and design

Abstract

Mobile agent technology makes it possible to reduce network traffic, overcome network latencies and enhance robustness and fault-tolerant capabilities of distributed applications. However, it is sometimes difficult or even impossible to take full advantage of these technical benefits because of the lack of an appropriate infrastructure for overcoming problems related to connectivity (e.g. access through firewalls), security, location transparency, and use of proprietary tools. This paper discusses these problems and introduces the requirements for various infrastructure components and their implementation with the aim of enhancing the practicality and accelerating the deployment of mobile agents.