Using cooperative mobile agents to monitor distributed and dynamic environments

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• 作者：Sergio Ilarri ; Eduardo Mena ; Arantza Illarramendi
• 关键词：Distributed monitoring ; Distributed systems ; Mobile agents ; Cooperative agents ; Coordination
• 刊名：Information Sciences
• 出版年：2008
• 出版时间：1 May 2008
• 年：2008
• 卷：178
• 期：9
• 页码：2105-2127
• 全文大小：692 K

文摘

Monitoring the changes in data values obtained from the environment (e.g., locations of moving objects) is a primary concern in many fields, as for example in the pervasive computing environment. The monitoring task is challenging from a double perspective. First and foremost, the environment can be highly dynamic in terms of the rate of data changes. Second, the monitored data are often not available from a single computer/device but are distributed; moreover, the set of data providers can change along the course of time. Therefore, obtaining a global snapshot of the environment and keeping it up-to-date is not easy, especially if the conditions (e.g., network delays) change.

In this article, a decentralized, loose, and fault-tolerant monitoring approach based on the use of mobile agents is described. Mobile agents allow easy tracking of the involved computers, carrying the monitoring tasks to wherever they are needed. A deadline-based mechanism is used to coordinate the cooperative agents, which strive to perform their continuous tasks in time while considering data as recent as possible, constantly adapting themselves to new environmental conditions (changing communication and processing delays). This approach has been successfully used in a real environment and experiments were carried out to prove its feasibility and benefits.