BIB-VERSION:: CS-TR-v2.0
ID:: ncstrl.dartmouthcs//TR2000-365
ENTRY:: April 20, 2000
ORGANIZATION:: Dartmouth College, Computer Science
TITLE:: Mobile Agents: Motivations and State-of-the-Art Systems
TYPE:: Technical Report (paper)
REVISION:: 1
AUTHOR:: Gray, Robert S.
AUTHOR:: Kotz, David
AUTHOR:: Cybenko, George
AUTHOR:: Rus, Daniela
DATE:: April 2000
RETRIEVAL:: For a paper copy, email <reports@cs.dartmouth.edu>
RETRIEVAL:: For a paper copy, write to
       Technical Report Librarian
       Department of Computer Science
       Dartmouth College
       6211 Sudikoff Laboratory
       Hanover, NH 03755-3510
       USA
RETRIEVAL:: Compressed Postscript at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/reports/TR2000-365.ps.Z
RETRIEVAL:: PDF at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/reports/TR2000-365.pdf
ABSTRACT:: 
A mobile agent is an executing program that can migrate, at times of its
own choosing, from machine to machine in a heterogeneous network.  On
each machine, the agent interacts with stationary service agents and
other resources to accomplish its task.  In this chapter, we first make
the case for mobile agents, discussing six strengths of mobile agents
and the applications that benefit from these strengths.  Although none of
these strengths are unique to mobile agents, no
competing technique shares all six.  In other words, a mobile-agent
system provides a single general framework in which a wide range of
distributed applications can be implemented efficiently and easily.
We then present a representative cross-section of current mobile-agent
systems.
NOTE:: 
This technical report will appear as a chapter in Jeffrey M. Bradshaw,
editor, Handbook of Agent Technology, AAAI/MIT Press, 2000.  In Press.
END:: ncstrl.dartmouthcs//TR2000-365