The book focuses on mobile agents, which are computer programs that can autonomously migrate between network sites. This text introduces the concepts and principles of mobile agents, provides an overview of mobile agent technology, and focuses on applications in networking and distributed computing.

This book constitues the refereed proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Agent Systems and Applications and the Fourth International Symposium on Mobile Agents, ASA/MA 2000 held in ZÃ1⁄4rich, Switzerland in September 2000. The 20 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 107 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on migration, security issues, systems and applications, mobile agent applications, applications of multi-agent systems, communication and mobility control, cooperation and interaction.

Like human agents, Internet agents can move independently in a network of locations to perform their tasks, all the while making independent decisions. Their behavior can provide astonishing solutions not even dreamed of today. Mobile Agents will help you understand their amazing potential for business applications and show you in detail how to create and use the power of agent technologies.

Af indhold: Part 1, Motivation for and Introduction to Mobile Agents. Part 2, Mobile Agents - Concepts, Functions, and possible Problems. Part 3, The Kalong Mobility Model - Specification and Implementation. Part 4, The Tracy Mobile Agent Toolkit

Agent technology has recently become one of the most vibrant and fastest growing areas in information technology. This is the first systematic introduction to software agents with the goal of exploiting them in future communication systems. The coherently written chapters provide complementary coverage of the relevant issues. Multi-agent systems and mobile agent approaches are presented and applied to important topics in future communication systems.

This book constitutes revised, selected, and invited papers from the 4th International Workshop on Engineering Multi-Agent Systems, EMAS 2016, held in Singapore, in May 2016, in conjunction with AAMAS. The 10 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 14 submissions. The book also contains 2 invited papers; extended versions of AAMAS 2016 demonstration abstracts. EMAS deals with MAS software engineering processes, methodologies and techniques; Programming languages for MAS; Formal methods and declarative technologies for the specification, validation and verification of MAS; and development tools.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Mobile Agents for Telecommunication Applications, MATA 2001, held in Montreal, Canada in August 2001. The 26 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the volume. Among the topics addressed are network management, mobile applications, nomadic computing, feature interaction, Internet applications, QoS managment, policy-based management, interactive multimedia, tele-learning, and computer telephony integration.

The first book to provide an integrative presentation of the issues, challenges and success of designing, building and using agent applications. The chapters presented are written by internationally leading authorities in the field, with a general audience in mind. The result is a unique overview of agent technology applications, ranging from an introduction to the technical foundations to reports on dealing with specific agent systems in practice.

Mobile agents refer to self-contained and identi?able computer programs that can move within the network and can act on behalf of the user or another entity. Most of the current research work on the mobile agent paradigm has two general goals: reduction of network traf?c and asynchronous interaction. These two goals stem directly from the desire to reduce information overload and to ef?ciently use network resources. There are certainly many motivations for the use of a mobile agent paradigm; h- ever, intelligent information retrieval, network and mobility management, and network services are currently the three most cited application targets for a mobile agent system. The aim of the workshop is to provide a unique opportunity for researchers, software and application developers, and computer network technologists to discuss new dev- opments in the mobile agent technology and applications. After last year’s very successful workshop in Ottawa, Canada (110 attendees), this year’s workshop will focus on mobile agent issues across the areas of network m- agement, mobile applications, nomadic computing, e-commerce, ad-hoc networks and applications, feature interactions, Internet applications, QoS management, policybased management, interactive multimedia, and computer–telephony integration.

A software agent has a spectrum of definitions. At one end of the scale are relatively simple, client-based software applications that can assist users in performing mundane tasks such as sorting e-mail or downloading web pages. This class of agents is often referred to as “personal assistant” agents. At the other end of the scale is the concept of sophisticated software entities possessing artificial intelligence that autonomously travel through a network environment and make complex decisions on a user's behalf.In telecommunications, the definition lies somewhere between those two extremes. This classification of mobile agents, although not strictly adhering to the definition of “intelligent agents” originally proposed by the artificial intelligence community, is generally acknowledged to be a useful categorization and has started to gain widespread acceptance. We therefore define a mobile agent as a program that acts on behalf of a user or another program and is able to migrate from host to host on a network under its own control. The agent chooses when and where it will migrate and may interrupt its own execution and continue elsewhere on the network. The agent returns results and messages in an asynchronous fashion.This volume discusses the emerging field of mobile software agents and their applications to the area of telecommunications, such as active networks, e-commerce, the Internet, interactive QoS, network management, and feature interactions. It addresses the needs of a wide audience, including researchers, software agent systems and telecommunication applications designers, and users of software agents.