The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Distributed Directory Service and Message Routing for Mobile Agents

Distributed Directory Service and Message Routing for Mobile Agents
Distributed Directory Service and Message Routing for Mobile Agents
Research about networks and agents has identified the need for a layer that provides a uniform protocol to communicate with fixed and mobile agents. In order to preserve the compatibility with existing infrastructures, proposed solutions have involved a "home agent", which forwards messages to a mobile entity. The mechanism of a home agent puts a burden on the infrastructure, which may hamper the scalability of the approach, in particular, in massively distributed systems, such as the amorphous computer or the ubiquitous/pervasive computing environment. Free from any compatibility constraint, we have designed an algorithm to route messages to mobile agents that does not require any fixed location. The algorithm has two different facets: a distributed directory service that maintains distributed information about the location of a mobile agent, and a message router that uses the directory service to deliver messages to a mobile agent. Two properties of the algorithm were established. The safety property ensures that messages are delivered to the agent they were aimed at, whereas the liveness property guarantees that messages eventually get delivered. A mechanical proof of the properties was carried out using the proof assistant Coq.
249
Moreau, Luc
033c63dd-3fe9-4040-849f-dfccbe0406f8
Moreau, Luc
033c63dd-3fe9-4040-849f-dfccbe0406f8

Moreau, Luc (2001) Distributed Directory Service and Message Routing for Mobile Agents. Science of Computer Programming, 39 (2--3), 249.

Record type: Article

Abstract

Research about networks and agents has identified the need for a layer that provides a uniform protocol to communicate with fixed and mobile agents. In order to preserve the compatibility with existing infrastructures, proposed solutions have involved a "home agent", which forwards messages to a mobile entity. The mechanism of a home agent puts a burden on the infrastructure, which may hamper the scalability of the approach, in particular, in massively distributed systems, such as the amorphous computer or the ubiquitous/pervasive computing environment. Free from any compatibility constraint, we have designed an algorithm to route messages to mobile agents that does not require any fixed location. The algorithm has two different facets: a distributed directory service that maintains distributed information about the location of a mobile agent, and a message router that uses the directory service to deliver messages to a mobile agent. Two properties of the algorithm were established. The safety property ensures that messages are delivered to the agent they were aimed at, whereas the liveness property guarantees that messages eventually get delivered. A mechanical proof of the properties was carried out using the proof assistant Coq.

Text
mob - Accepted Manuscript
Download (21MB)
Archive
mob.ps.gz - Other
Restricted to Registered users only
Download (146kB)
Request a copy

More information

Published date: 2001
Organisations: Web & Internet Science

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 254479
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/254479
PURE UUID: ba2826f5-ad2e-48e4-bd1a-5aeb27ac3a26
ORCID for Luc Moreau: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3494-120X

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 02 Apr 2001
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 05:33

Export record

Contributors

Author: Luc Moreau ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×