Dynamic-agents for dynamic service provisioning

Abstract

We claim that a dynamic-agent infrastructure can provide a shift from static distributed computing to dynamic distributed computing, and we have developed such an infrastructure to realize such a shift. We shall show its impact on software engineering through a comparison with other distributed object-oriented systems such as CORBA and DCOM, and demonstrate its value in highly dynamic system integration and service provisioning. The infrastructure is Java-based, light-weight, and extensible. It differs from other agent platforms and client/server infrastructures in its support of dynamic behavior modification of agents. A dynamic-agent is not designed to have a fixed set of predefined functions but instead, to carry application-specific actions, which can be loaded and modified on theory. This allows a dynamic-agent to adjust its capability for accommodating environment and requirement changes, and play different roles across multiple applications. The above features are supported by the light-weight, built-in management facilities of dynamic-agents, which can be commonly used by the "carried" application programs to communicate, manage resources and modify their problem solving capabilities. Therefore, the proposed infrastructure allows application-specific multi-agent systems to be developed easily on top of it, provides "nuts and bolts" for run-time system integration, and supports dynamic service construction, modification and movement. A prototype has been developed at HP Labs and made available to several external research groups.