An agent system for query routing search

Gibbins, Nicholas M (2002) An agent system for query routing search. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

This thesis examines the issues affecting the design and implementation of scalable agent-based systems which use query routing for resource or service discovery. Query routing is a type of informed distributed search in which agents reason about the capabilities of other agents in order to constrain the scope of a query and the cost of processing it.

The technique of query routing bears many similarities to the use of mediators in multi-agent systems. We discuss the relation between mediator-based systems for service discovery in multi-agent systems and the use of query routing in distributed information systems, and present a novel model of the query routing task which we have used to examine the complexity and scalability of a number of commonly encountered architectures for resource or service discovery.

This theory-based approach is complemented by our practical experiences of building query routing systems using our simple agent framework, Phyle. Finally, we perform an empirical study of the behaviour of different query routing systems in order to validate our model, using our simulator for query routing systems, Paraphyle.

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