Mobile Agent Technology for the Management of Distributed Systems - a Case Study Claudia Raibulet& Claudio Demartini Politecnico di Torino, Dipartimento di Automatica e Informatica, Turin, Italy Terena Networking Conference 2000 Lisbon, Portugal

Summary q Scope q Mobile Agent Technology - General Considerations q The Distributed Data Repository (DDR) Model q Mobile Agents for the Management of DDR Information q Why to Use Mobile Agents for the Management of Distributed Information q Voyager Platform for the Implementation of Mobile Agents q Conclusions

Scope q An example of the application of mobile agents for the access & management of information stored in a Distributed Data Repository (DDR).

Mobile Agent Technology General Considerations q An agent = self-contained software element that acts on behalf of a user q A mobile agent = an agent + the ability to migrate from one host in a network to another Terms related to a mobile agent: ä autonomous ä asynchronous ä mobility ä communication ä security

Mobile Agent Technology General Considerations The main difference between: mobile agent technology client-server & message based architectures is the solution they provide for the distribution problems: local interaction & mobile logic location transparency & versus

Mobile Agent Technology General Considerations q Application domains for mobile agents: ë electronic commerce ë telecommunications ë information retrieval ë management of distributed resources q Domains’ features: ë asynchronous transactions ë low bandwidth ë multi-processing ë distributed task processing

The Distributed Data Repository Model q Scope: to provide a unified view of the distributed heterogeneous resources of an industrial system q Architecture:

Mobile Agents for the Management of DDR Information q Categories of management operations: ë read management operations ä device identification ä check of parameter values ä monitoring of device status ë set management operations ä set/modification of device parameters ä set of functional configurations for the devices

Mobile Agents for the Management of DDR Information q Examples of queries: ë List all type T devices of the industrial plant that have parameter X set on Y value. ë Monitor the value of parameter X belonging to the Y device every N seconds. Do operation Z and notify the DDR System Manager if the value is out of a certain range. ë A new resource X has been added to the industrial plant. Update the related information in the DDR Database and the DDR System Manager.

Mobile Agents for the Management of DDR Information user DDR System Manager Plant 1 Plant 2 Plant n query 1 response 1 query 2 response 2 query n response n prepare result A client-server solution for the query: List all type T devices of the industrial plant that have parameter X set on Y value. request result

Mobile Agents for the Management of DDR Information user DDR System Manager Plant 1 Plant 2 Plant n create agent send agent execute agent send agent execute agent send agent execute agent result A mobile agent based solution for the query: List all type T devices of the industrial plant that have parameter X set on Y value. request result

Mobile Agents for the Management of DDR Information A client-server solution for the query: Monitor the value of parameter X belonging to the Y device every N seconds. Do operation Z and notify the DDR System Manager if the value is out of a certain range. user DDR System Manager Plant i query response request notify the user

Mobile Agents for the Management of DDR Information A mobile agent based solution for the query: Monitor the value of parameter X belonging to the Y device every N seconds. Do operation Z and notify the DDR System Manager if the value is out of a certain range. user DDR System Manager Plant i notification create agent send agent execute agent request notification

Why to Use Mobile Agents for the Management of Distributed Information q There are at least four reasons that sustain the usage of mobile agent technology for the access and the management of distributed information: 1. mobile logic and local interaction 2. load balancing 3. low traffic in the network 4. flexibility

Voyager Platform for the Implementation of Mobile Agents q Voyager platform: ë based on common available standards ë unifies and simplifies the development of distributed applications ë provides a complex Object Request Broker that supports: ä dynamic aggregation ä mobility ä autonomous mobile agents ä dynamic class loading ä remote construction ä distributed garbage collection ë provides the support for the creation, migration, execution, and destruction of mobile agents

Conclusions q A case study of mobile agents’ usage for the management of DDR distributed resources has been presented q Mobile agent technology is an alternative approach to the traditional approaches, not a universal solution for distributed systems q Mobile agent technology offers important advantages, such as flexibility, scalability, load balancing, load traffic in the network, etc. q Mobile agents require a proper and secure environment for their implementation and execution q Further work will be related to the security of the mobile agents and of the hosts that receive them in public networks.