A framework of reusable structures for mobile agent development

The se s tructur es were embod ie d into a comprehensive agent be havi oral model shaped on t op of a unifying framework. By means of s uch a fr amework we managed to make the agent p la tform trans pare nt to the us er and, in the same time, deco uple the re us able patterns from the under lying mobile agent pl atfo rm. It thus beco mes cl ear that the model was s tructur ed to be highly indepe nd ent, encompas sing a handful of abst ract featur es that a llo w it to be eq ually expres sive re gardle s s of th e underlying agent suppor t . Enti ties common to eve ry agent p la tfor m (location, agent, mes s age, behavior, agent identifier along with ot her relevant ones) provi d e the cont ext within which we were able to d efine the reus ab le patterns . The s e patterns prod uc e an environment that ultimately sep arate s the behavi oral model from the a ctual s keleton upon which the pat ters are enacted (i.e. the J ADE agent plat fo rm) and, as s uch, once they are c re ated, rewriting them will not be necessary for every new p la tfor m. Simply put, one has onl y to write new ada p te rs if needed, or us e the avail able ones a long with the alread y exi s ting framewo rk items to integrate (coale sce) the compon ent sh e req ui res. Adapters were employed t o p rovi de the bridge between the framework and agent p la tfor ms .