Resource Monitoring to Support Mobile Agents in Pervasive Computing

Abstract

Mobile agents are a form of software agents that migrate from device to device, performing their job in an unobtrusive manner. Mobile agents are particularly useful for pervasive computing as they are lightweight processes that allow for the delegation of tasks, have migratory characteristics, and operate regardless of whether the device they are on is connected to the network. However, in order to facilitate the full potential of mobile agents in pervasive environments, it is evident that there is a need for mobile agents to be resource-aware. To this end, we propose a model for a Resource Aware Middleware for Mobile Agents (RAMMA). We present the conceptual architecture of RAMMA, its implementation and an evaluation of the resource utilisation patterns of the monitor itself.