A Multi-Agent Based Architecture for Distributed KDD Process

Abstract

Focuses in KDD research are being extended from individual techniques to KDD process, while KDD systems have been rapidly evolving from the early stand-alone ones to the current large, Distributed KDD (DKDD) systems. In this paper, we concentrate on the architectural as- pect of Distributed KDD systems from the perspective of CSCW (treating DKDD as a special case of CSCW). After summarizing the requirements needed to support Distributed KDD, we describe a Client/Server architecture for DKDD that is ``traditional'' for CSCW in general. Then we propose a Multi-Agent (MAS) based architecture for DKDD. Compared with the traditional Client/Server architecture, the MAS based architecture is better in terms of simplicity and flexibility, and particu- larly useful in modeling and providing support to cooperative activities (communication, negotiation, coordination and collaboration).