Technology Review of Java-based Mobile Agent Platforms
Report or working paper
The concept of mobile agents promises new ways of designing applications that better use the resources and services of computer systems and networks. For example, moving a program (e.g. search engine) to a resource (e.g. database) can save a lot of bandwidth and can be an enabling factor for applications which otherwise would not be practical due to network latency. Leveraging on the strengths of Java, several Java-based mobile agent platforms became available recently. This report introduces features Java-based mobile agent platforms should provide in our view and investigates in detail the current versions of three existing platforms. The aim is to provide developers with a detailed comparison and to help in selecting an appropriate platform. Keywords: Mobile Agents, Mobile Code, Platforms, Java