Defining Open Software Architectures for Customized Remote Execution of Web Agents

摘要

Agent-based solutions promise to ameliorate Web services, by promoting the modular construction of Web servers, relieving the network from transferring useless data, supporting user mobility, etc. However, existing Web servers do not favor the hosting of agents. This paper proposes a description of agent behavior in terms of its requirements regarding resource utilization (e.g. memory, and disk space), functional services (e.g. system calls), and non-functional properties (e.g. degree of replication, and access control). When formally expressed, these requirements can be used in an automated decision process, which is based on software specification matching techniques. Upon the acceptance of an agent, the host uses these requirements to construct an environment customized to agent's execution. We discuss the benefits of this approach, and how it can be used to promote existing agent-based solutions in the Web framework.