An agent-based middleware – a solution for terminal and user mobility

Mobile agents have been identified as a high-potential technology for many application areas. One very promising domain for mobile agent deployment is mobile information access and management. Here, mobile agents promise an increased performance as well as enhanced user mobility through their ability of asynchronous, disconnected operations. However, concrete concepts for the realisation of such an agent-based user mobility are still to be delivered. Therefore, the focus in this paper is on the architecture and the agent environment design that allows terminal mobility as well as user mobility. We propose a distributed directory service like X.500 as an agent directory containing the descriptions of services available in a system, as well as the locations of the corresponding agents. A second directory structure functions as a database for terminal and user profiles. Together with concepts for mobile agent management presented in this paper, these two directories support an agent based middleware which serves as a basis for user mobility. In the following, the concepts of this mobility-supporting middleware enabled through mobile agent technology are explained.