Mobile Agents in Heterogeneous Networks: A Look on Performance

Mobile agents can be seen as a new paradigm for distributed computing. One characteristic of mobile agents is their autonomy and pro-activity. This article present a framework designed on top of PMADE (Platform for Mobile Agent Distribution and Execution) to support our research in this domain. Our framework consists of three modules. The Map Module collects information on the available network of agent hosts (AHs) and a mobile agent is able to locate services within the network with the help of this module. Furthermore, the framework provides a Route estimating module and an optimization module, which minimizes network load. These modules support a fast and efficient navigation through the network, which is an environment with an inherently dynamical behavior. The basis for this work is the PMADE Domain Service, which is a hierarchical arrangement of AHs that groups AHs into a federation of networked local clusters, so called domains. This paper also evaluates the basic concepts and the actual modules of the developed framework and made some measurements to characterize the modules quality and to identify problems.