MAGDA: A Mobile Agent based Grid Architecture

Mobile agents mean both a technology and a programming paradigm. They allow for a flexible approach which can alleviate a number of issues present in distributed and Grid-based systems, by means of features such as migration, cloning, messaging and other provided mechanisms. In this paper we describe an architecture (MAGDA – Mobile Agent based Grid Architecture) we have designed and we are currently developing to support programming and execution of mobile agent based application upon Grid systems

A Lightweight and Flexible Mobile Agent Platform Tailored to Management Applications

Mobile Agents (MAs) represent a distributed computing technology that promises to address the scalability problems of centralized network management. A critical issue that will affect the wider adoption of MA paradigm in management applications is the development of MA Platforms (MAPs) expressly oriented to distributed management. However, most of available platforms impose considerable burden on network and system resources and also lack of essential functionality. In this paper, we discuss the design considerations and implementation details of a complete MAP research prototype that sufficiently addresses all the aforementioned issues. Our MAP has been implemented in Java and tailored for network and systems management applications.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures; Proceedings of the 2006 Conference on Mobile Computing and Wireless Communications (MCWC'2006

A Flexible and Modular Framework for Implementing Infrastructures for Global Computing

We present a Java software framework for building infrastructures to support the development of applications for systems where mobility and network awareness are key issues. The framework is particularly useful to develop run-time support for languages oriented towards global computing. It enables platform designers to customize communication protocols and network architectures and guarantees transparency of name management and code mobility in distributed environments. The key features are illustrated by means of a couple of simple case studies

Implementing a distributed mobile calculus using the IMC framework

In the last decade, many calculi for modelling distributed mobile code have been proposed. To assess their merits and encourage use, implementations of the calculi have often been proposed. These implementations usually consist of a limited part dealing with mechanisms that are specific of the proposed calculus and of a significantly larger part handling recurrent mechanisms that are common to many calculi. Nevertheless, also the "classic" parts are often re-implemented from scratch. In this paper we show how to implement a well established representative of the family of mobile calculi, the distributed [pi]-calculus, by using a Java middleware (called IMC - Implementing Mobile Calculi) where recurrent mechanisms of distributed and mobile systems are already implemented. By means of the case study, we illustrate a methodology to accelerate the development of prototype implementations while concentrating only on the features that are specific of the calculus under consideration and relying on the common framework for all the recurrent mechanisms like network connections, code mobility, name handling, etc

Automatic application object migration in sensor networks

Object migration in wireless sensor networks has the potential to reduce energy consumption for a wireless sensor network mesh. Automated migration reduces the need for the programmer to perform manual static analysis to find an efficient layout solution. Instead, the system can self-optimise and adjust to changing conditions. This paper describes an automated, transparent object migration system for wireless sensor networks, implemented on a micro Java virtual machine. The migration system moves objects at runtime around the sensor mesh to reduce communication overheads. The movement of objects is transparent to the application developer. Automated transparent object migration is a core component of Hydra, a distributed operating system for wireless sensor networks that is currently under development. Performance of the system under a complex performance test scenario using a real-world dataset of seismic events is described. The results show that under both simple and complex conditions the migration technique can result in lower data traffic and consequently lower overall energy cost

An approach to rollback recovery of collaborating mobile agents

Fault-tolerance is one of the main problems that must be resolved to improve the adoption of the agents' computing paradigm. In this paper, we analyse the execution model of agent platforms and the significance of the faults affecting their constituent components on the reliable execution of agent-based applications, in order to develop a pragmatic framework for agent systems fault-tolerance. The developed framework deploys a communication-pairs independent check pointing strategy to offer a low-cost, application-transparent model for reliable agent- based computing that covers all possible faults that might invalidate reliable agent execution, migration and communication and maintains the exactly-one execution property