research-article

A Formal Architectural Model for Logical Agent Mobility

Authors:

Junhua DingAuthors Info & Claims

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Volume 29, Issue 1

Pages 31 - 45

https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2003.1166587

Published: 01 January 2003 Publication History

Abstract

The process of agent migration is the major difference between logical code mobility of software agents and physical mobility of mobile nodes in ad hoc networks. Without considering agent transfer, it would make little sense to mention the modeling of strong code mobility, which aims to make a migrated agent restarted exactly from the state when it was stopped before migration. From the perspective of system's architecture, this paper proposes a two-layer approach for the formal modeling of logical agent mobility (LAM) using predicate/transition (PrT) nets. We view a mobile agent system as a set of agent spaces and agents could migrate from one space to another. Each agent space is explicitly abstracted to be a component, consisting of an environmental part and an internal connector dynamically binding agents with their environment. We use a system net, agent nets, and a connector net to model the environment, agents, and the connector, respectively. In particular, agent nets are packed up as parts of tokens in system nets, so that agent transfer and location change are naturally captured by transition firing (token game) in Petri nets. Agent nets themselves are active only at specific places and disabled at all the other places in a system net. The semantics of such a two-layer LAM model is defined by transforming it into a PrT net. This facilitates the analysis of several properties about location, state, and connection. In addition, this paper also presents a case study of modeling and analyzing an information retrieval system with mobile agents.

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Cited By

Chen CHong ZJiang J(2022)Scheduling in Real-Time Mobile SystemsACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems10.1145/351774721:3(1-36)Online publication date: 28-May-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3517747
Jiang JHong ZChen Y(2019)Modeling and Analyzing Incremental Natures of Developing SoftwareACM Transactions on Management Information Systems10.1145/333353510:2(1-32)Online publication date: 10-Jul-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3333535
Jiang JZhu HLi QZhao YHong ZZhang SGong P(2019)Isolation Modeling and Analysis Based on MobilityACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/330660628:2(1-31)Online publication date: 26-Feb-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3306606
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

A Formal Architectural Model for Logical Agent Mobility
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Artificial intelligence
    1. Distributed artificial intelligence
      1. Intelligent agents
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software organization and properties
    1. Software system structures
      1. Software architectures
      2. Software system models
        Petri nets

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cover image IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering Volume 29, Issue 1

January 2003

96 pages

ISSN:0098-5589

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Copyright © Copyright © 2003 IEEE. All Rights Reserved.

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IEEE Press

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Published: 01 January 2003

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Cited By

Chen CHong ZJiang J(2022)Scheduling in Real-Time Mobile SystemsACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems10.1145/351774721:3(1-36)Online publication date: 28-May-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3517747
Jiang JHong ZChen Y(2019)Modeling and Analyzing Incremental Natures of Developing SoftwareACM Transactions on Management Information Systems10.1145/333353510:2(1-32)Online publication date: 10-Jul-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3333535
Jiang JZhu HLi QZhao YHong ZZhang SGong P(2019)Isolation Modeling and Analysis Based on MobilityACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/330660628:2(1-31)Online publication date: 26-Feb-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3306606
Jiang JZhu HLi QZhao YZhao LZhang SGong PHong ZChen D(2017)Event-Based Mobility Modeling and AnalysisACM Transactions on Cyber-Physical Systems10.1145/28233531:2(1-32)Online publication date: 20-Feb-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2823353
Hanandeh FAlsmadi IAl-Shannag MAl-Daoud E(2015)Mobile agents modelling using UMLInternational Journal of Business Information Systems10.1504/IJBIS.2015.07020219:4(419-432)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2015
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Dianxiang Xu Kent MThomas LMouelhi TLe Traon Y(2015)Automated Model-Based Testing of Role-Based Access Control Using Predicate/Transition NetsIEEE Transactions on Computers10.1109/TC.2014.237518964:9(2490-2505)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2015
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Higashino MOsaki SOtagaki STakahashi KKawamura TSugahara KWeippl EIndrawan-Santiago MSteinbauer MKotsis GKhalil I(2013)Debugging Mobile Agent SystemsProceedings of International Conference on Information Integration and Web-based Applications & Services10.1145/2539150.2539261(667-670)Online publication date: 2-Dec-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2539150.2539261
Wang WZong SYu JYongchareon S(2013)Modelling Web Service Personalization with Rule NetsWeb Information Systems Engineering – WISE 2013 Workshops10.1007/978-3-642-54370-8_19(228-238)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2013
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Qu WLi KKitsuregawa MXue W(2012)Statistical behaviors of mobile agents in network routingThe Journal of Supercomputing10.1007/s11227-008-0220-260:3(360-388)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2012
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Fortino GGarro AMascillaro SRusso W(2010)Using event-driven lightweight DSC-based agents for MAS modellingInternational Journal of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering10.1504/IJAOSE.2010.0327984:2(113-140)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2010
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