Software Agents for Future Communication Systems

394 Pages·1999·20.578 MB·English

by  Alex L. G. Hayzelden, John Bigham (auth.), Alex L. G. Hayzelden, John Bigham (eds.)

Software Agents
for
Future Communication Systems
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH
Alex L.G. Hayzelden • John Bigham (Eds.)
Software Agents
for Future
Communication Systems
With 121 Figures and 6 Tables
Springer
Editors
Alex L.G. Hayzelden
John Bigham
Intelligent Systems Applications Group
Department of Electronic Engineering
Queen Mary and Westfield College
University of London
Mile End Road, London, El 4NS, UK
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.agentcom.org/agentcom/
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hayzelden, Alex, 1974-
Software agents for future communication systemsl Alex Hayzelden,
John Bigham.
p. cm.
Inc1udes bibliographical references (p.
ISBN 978-3-642-63584-7 ISBN 978-3-642-58418-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-58418-3
1. Intelligent agents (Computer software) 2. Telecommunication
systems. 1. Bigham, john. II. Title.
QA76.76.I58H39 1999
006.3-dc21 99-25408
CIP
ACM Subject Classification (1998): 1.2, C.2
ISBN 978-3-642-63584-7
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material
is concerned, specifica1ly the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfIlm or in any other way, and storage in data banks.
Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the
German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must
always be obtained from Springer-Verlag. Violations are liable for prosecution under the German
Copyright Law.
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1999
Softcover reprint of the hardcover Ist edition 1999
The use of general descriptive names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in
the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws
and regulations and therefore free for general use.
Typesetting: Camera-ready by the editors
Cover Design: design + production GmbH, Heidelberg
Printed on acid-free paper SPIN 10714180 06/3142 - 5432 1 O
Preface
The main objectives of this book are to illustrate the diversity of telecommunications
applications, give an understanding of how the software agent metaphor is used in
practice and to let the reader conveniently find many useful and well written papers
under one cover. Material has been chosen from a wide range of sources, which the
editors' find interesting, practical and understandable.
The software agent paradigm has evolved from a specialized stream of distributed
artificial intelligence. However, though the first work on agents was as long ago as the
late 1970s, the software agent paradigm has taken a considerable amount of time to
come to fruition in the communications domain, especially in the telecommunications
world. At the time of writing, interest in the application of the software agent
paradigm to communications systems has grown enormously, mainly because it is
perceived as a powerful means to satisfy the commercially important need for
software systems to inter-operate and to manage large heterogeneous networks.
Therefore, communications infrastructures are now seen as a natural application
domain for Software Agents. The chapters in this book will clarify the potential for the
application of software agent technology in the communications domain (both
telecommunications and Internet communications platforms) and provide an overview
of the state-of-the-art research on software agents as used for network management
and control.
The book is in four main sections. The first section provides an introduction to agent
technology in the domain of communications systems. The second section considers
more specific problems of network communication systems and the reasons why
agents may provide a suitable solution. The third section focuses on visionary control
paradigms and the middleware software for coupling agent based systems to existing
communications platforms. The final section describes mobile agent based solutions
and commercial mobile agent platforms.
March, 1999. Alex Hayzelden and John Bigham
Reviewers
The editors, would like to thank all those who were involved in aspects of reviewing
the chapters for this book, they include;
Appleby, S Jennings, N
Bauer, B Kearney, P
Bigham, J Kramer, K
Buckle, P Luo,Z
Busuioc, M Maes,P
Calisti, M Magedanz, T
Cox,M Minar, N
Cuthbert, L Muller, J
Davison, R Ndumu,D
Evans, R Nwana, H
Faratin, P Pitt, J
Gerber, C Poslad, S
Ghanea-Hercock, R Preist, C
Gibney, M Schoonderwoerd, R
Green, S Schroeder, M
Hadingham, R Steiner, D
Hardwicke, J Turner, P
Hayzelden, A Weihmayer, R
Heusse, M Willmott, S
Holland,O Wooldridge, M
Acknowledgements
The editors would especially like to thank all of the invited contributors that have
made this book possible.
The editors acknowledge the support of British Telecommunications Laboratories,
U.K. for partly funding aspects of the research required for the production of this
book; Queen Mary and Westfield College (University of London, U.K.) for providing
an excellent working environment; and EPSRC for their financial support. The editors
would also like to thank Steve Willmott and Shaw Green for help with the
co-ordination of the review process. A thanks extends to all the people who provided
feedback on initial versions of this book and our families for their patience.
Contents
Chapter 1: Future Communication Networks Using Software Agents .••.•.••••.••••.•• 1
Alex Hayzelden, John Bigham, Michael Wooldridge and Laurie Cuthbert
1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Some Agent Related Definitions ............................................................. 3
1.2 Rationale for Multiple Software Agents ................................................. 6
1.3 Agent Architectures ................................................................................ 8
1.4 Open Systems and Heterogeneous Multi-agent Systems ....................... 10
1.5 Co-ordination in Multi-Agent Systems ................................................. 13
1.6 Software Agent Communication ........................................................... 14
1.7 Mobile Software Agents ....................................................................... 17
1.8 Trends in Agent-Based Computing ....................................................... 20
Part 2 Communications Systems -Integration of Paradigms ............................. 23
2.1 Telecommunications Considerations .................................................... 23
2.2 The Internet Architecture ...................................................................... 24
2.3 General Network Complexity ............................................................... 25
2.4 Users and the Need for Mobility ........................................................... 26
2.5 The Merging of Traditional Telephony and Computing Paradigms ..... 27
2.6 Centralized or Distributed Management ............................................... 28
2.7 Software Agent Based Network Management ...................................... 29
2.8 Service Management ............................................................................. 30
2.9 Current Telecommunications Management Platforms .......................... 31
2.10 Agents and Economic Theory for Telecommunications Management.. 36
2.11 Guessing the Future of Telecommunications ........................................ 39
2.12 Challenges of Software Agents in Telecommunications ....................... 40
Part 3 Review of the Subsequent Chapters ...................................................... 41
4 Summary ......................................................................................................... 45
Chapter 2: Agents of Change in Future Communication Systems ....................... 58
Hyacinth Nwana and Divine Ndumu
1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 58
2 Trends, Lessons Learned and some Viewpoints on the Future of
Communications Systems .............................................................................. 59
3 Distributed Software: the Quintessential 'Glue' of Future Communication
Systems .......................................................................................................... 63
4 Agents in Future Communication Systems: A General Case ......................... 64
5 Agents Research at BT Labs and Future Communications Systems .............. 68
5. I Collaborative Agents ............................................................................. 69
5.2 Interface Agents/Information Agents ..................................................... 74
5.3 Mobile Agents ......................................................................................... 80
5.4 Reactive & Hybrid Agents ..................................................................... 80
VIII Contents
5.5 Heterogeneous Agent Systems ................................................................ 81
6 What Society Should be Doing to Prepare for Emergence of FCS ................ 82
7 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 83
Chapter 3: A Multi-Agent System Architecture for Scalable Management
of High Performance Networks: Applying Arms Length Autonomy ................... 86
Richard Evans, Fergal Somers, David Kerr, and Donie O'Sullivan
1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 86
1.1 Network Management Challenges Posed by ATM ................................. 87
2 Intelligent Agents .......................................................................................... 88
2.1 Distributed Management Using Intelligent Agents ................................. 88
3 The Hybrid System ......................................................................................... 91
3.1 Hierarchy of Authorities ......................................................................... 91
3.2 Design of an Authority ........................................................................... 92
3.3 The Design of Agents ............................................................................. 93
3.4 Co-ordinating the Behavior of the Agent System ................................... 94
3.5 ASL -Open Agent Architecture ............................................................. 97
4 Concerns about the Agent Approach ............................................................ 101
4.1 Deliberative vs. Reactive Agent Architectures in Hybrid ..................... 101
4.2 Tradeoffs in the Choice of Content Language ...................................... 102
5 Benefits of the Agent Approach ................................................................... 103
5.1 Benefits of Using Agent Technology ................................................... 103
5.2 Agent Oriented Middleware for Software Integration .......................... 104
6 Analysis of Hybrid Performance .................................................................. 105
7 Conclusions .................................................................................................. 109
Chapter 4: Distributed Intelligent Agents: A Solution for the Management
of Complex Telecommunications Services ............................................................ 112
Marius Busuioc
1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 112
2 The Agent Platform ...................................................................................... 113
2.1 Which Agents? ....................................................................................... 113
2.2 The Architecture Design ........................................................................ 114
2.3 Generic Agent Model ............................................................................. 117
3 The Prototype ............................................................................................... 118
3.1 The Implementation of Agent Types ...................................................... 118
3.2 Graphical User Interfaces ....................................................................... 120
3.3 Service Scenarios ................................................................................... 121
4 Lessons ......................................................................................................... 124
4.1 Decomposition, Distribution and Allocation of Tasks ........................... 125
4.2 Communication and Interaction Languages ........................................... 126
4.3 Coherent Collective Behavior ................................................................ 126
4.4 Inter-agent Negotiation ........................................................................... 127
5 Future work ................................................................................................... 128
Contents IX
Chapter 5: Organization and Coordination for On-Line Routing
in Communications Networks ................................................................................ 130
Steven Willmott, Boi Faltings, Christian Frei and Monique Calisti
1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 130
2 A routing problem ......................................................................................... 131
2.1 Generic Problem Defmition .................................................................. 132
2.2 How Difficult is it? ............................................................................... 132
2.3 The Need for Agents ............................................................................. 133
3 Applying current work in Distributed Artificial Intelligence ........................ 135
3.1 The Network Routing Domain .............................................................. 136
3.2 Current Agent Based Approaches to Routing Problems ....................... 140
3.3 Non Agent Based Approaches to the Routing ....................................... 142
4 Adaptive Control Structures ......................................................................... 142
4.1 Blocking Islands and Space Partitioning ............................................... 143
4.2 How Agents Run Blocking Islands ....................................................... 146
4.4 Description and Discussion ................................................................... 152
5 Conclusions ................................................................................................... 154
Chapter 6: Multi-Agent Interactions for a Network Management System
(Tele-Macs Approach) ............................................................................................ 160
Alex Hayzelden, John Bigham and Zhiyuan Luo
1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 160
2 ATM Network Management -The Problems .............................................. 162
2.1 Virtual Path Connection Management... ............................................... 162
2.2 Why Adopt Agent Technology? ............................................................ 163
3 Building Modularized Software Systems .................................................... 164
4 Distributed Multi-Agent Communications Control.. .................................... 166
4.1 Distributed Multi-layered Agent Control Architecture (Te1e-MACS) .. 167
4.2 Functionality of Each Agent ................................................................ 167
4.3 Tele-MACS Approach for Network Management ................................ 168
4.4 Suppressed Views of the World ............................................................ 169
5 Application of Tele-MACS to a Network Management Problem ............... 169
5.1 Control of the Bandwidth Resource Configuration in ATM Networks. 170
6 Network Management Multi-Agent System Implementation ....................... 172
7 Multi-Agent Model (IMPACT System) ....................................................... 174
7.1 Physical Location of the Principle Agents ............................................. 175
7.2 Multi-threading and Agent Implementation .......................................... 176
7.3 Agent Communications ......................................................................... 17 7
7.4 Multi-Agent Interactions ....................................................................... 178
7.5 Agent Software System ......................................................................... 178
8 Future Work ................................................................................................. 179
9 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 180
X Contents
Chapter 7: Resource Adaptation for a Scalable Agent Society
in the MoTiV-PTA Domain ................................................................................... 183
Christian Gerber, Bernhard Bauer and Donald Steiner
1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 183
2 A Generic Resource Allocation Procedure ................................................... 184
2.1 A Hybrid Representation of an Agent Society ...................................... 185
2.2 Adaptation through Monitoring and Resource Allocation .................... 187
2.3 The SIF Simulation Environment ......................................................... 189
3 MECCA ........................................................................................................ 190
3.1 FIPA ...................................................................................................... 190
3.2 The MECCA System ............................................................................ 192
3.3 Personal Travel Assistance ................................................................... 193
4 Simulation Studies in the PTA Scenario ...................................................... 196
4.1 Simulation ............................................................................................. 196
4.2 Optimization ......................................................................................... 198
5 Conclusion and Future Work ........................................................................ 202
Appendix ...................................................................................................... 203
Chapter 8: Economic Agents for Automated Trading ........................................ 207
Chris Preist
1 Commerce meets the Web ............................................................................ 207
2 Agents in Electronic Commerce ................................................................... 208
3 Agents which Negotiate ................................................................................ 209
4 Negotiating Strategies ................................................................................... 210
5 Marketplaces where Agents Meet.. ............................................................... 211
6 The Persistent Shout Double Auction ........................................................... 212
6.1 Supply and Demand .............................................................................. 212
6.2 Agents which Adapt to the Market ....................................................... 213
6.3 Stable Marketplaces of Agents ............................................................. 215
7 Moving to Realistic Markets ......................................................................... 217
Chapter 9: Agent-Oriented Middleware for Integrating Customer Network
Services .................................................................................................................... 221
Stefan Poslad, Jeremy Pitt, Abe Mamdani, Robert Hadingham and Philip Buckle
1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 221
2 Background: Network and Service Level Integration ................................... 223
2.1 Network Level Integration .................................................................... 223
2.2 Service Integration ................................................................................ 224
2.3 Use of Middleware to aid Service Integration ...................................... 226
2.4 Software Agents to Aid Service Integration (Enhance Access) ... : ........ 228
3 Design Issues for Agent-Oriented Middleware ............................................. 233
3.1 The Importance of Standards ................................................................ 233
3.2 Basic Architectural Designs .................................................................. 235