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Mobile Agents: A Key for Effective Pervasive Computing. Roberto Speicys Cardoso & Fabio Kon University of São Paulo - Brazil. Pervasive Computing Properties. Networking – unstable and energy consuming Heterogeneous Dynamic and Complex
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Mobile Agents: A Key for Effective Pervasive Computing Roberto Speicys Cardoso & Fabio Kon University of São Paulo - Brazil
Pervasive Computing Properties • Networking – unstable and energy consuming • Heterogeneous • Dynamic and Complex • Seamless integration between computers and the real world
Why Mobile Agents? • Reduce network load • Flexible • Can perform tasks on behalf of the administrator or application • Use of mobile agents can lead to advantages in terms of performance, flexibility and escalability.
Proposed solution • We propose a mobile-agent enabled solution for: • System adaptation based on service migration • Automatic updates for software components • QoS negotiation
System Architecture • Manages 3 aspects • Adaptation • Software Evolution • Quality of Service Negotiation
Service Adaptation • Dynamic environment • Services must be very responsive • Computer power available • Services implemented as mobile agents • Monitor the environment to detect changes on resource availability • Migrates or spans a clone to a more suitable host
Component Updates • High number of devices • New component versions must be pushed to the devices • Components must be able to pull other components on which they depend • Mobile agents encapsulate component data and commands for installation • They can traverse a pre-defined path of nodes, stoping on each node
Quality of Service Negotiation • Multimedia will be a central part of the user interface • Benefits of service migration cannot be lost • QoS negotiation may require long periods of connected communication • Mobile agents can avoid connected communication • They can roam the nodes to negotiate QoS contracts
Current Status • Service capable of adapt itself is under development, using Aglets • A framework developed in our research group will be used for activity monitoring • A prototype will be ready by the end of the first semester of 2003
Related Work • one.world (University of Washington) • Doesn’t provide mechanisms for component updates or means QoS negotiation • Pervasive Computing (IBM) • Doesn’t provide mechanisms for resource reservation or service migration for adaptation • Gaia (University of Illinois) • Approach complementary
Conclusion • Mobile agents are a powerful tool for pervasive computing environments • They are a key factor to increase the flexibility, scalability and performance of such systems • The ongoing research on pervasive computing is neglecting these aspects