@TechReport{Dartmouth:TR2001-386,
  author = {Robert S. Gray and David Kotz and Ronald A. Peterson and Peter Gerken and Martin Hofmann and Daria Chacon and Greg Hill and Niranjan Suri},
  title = {{Mobile-Agent versus Client/Server Performance: Scalability in an Information-Retrieval Task}},
  institution = {Dartmouth College, Computer Science},
  address = {Hanover, NH},
  number = {TR2001-386},
  year = {2001},
  month = {January},
  URL = {http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/reports/TR2001-386.ps.Z},
  comment = {
    Revised version appeared in Mobile Agents 2001.
    See <a href=http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~dfk/papers/#gray:scalability>here</a>.
  },
  abstract = {
    Mobile agents are programs that can jump from host
    to host in the network, at times and to places of
    their own choosing. Many groups have developed
    mobile-agent software platforms, and several
    mobile-agent applications. Experiments show that
    mobile agents can, among other things, lead to
    faster applications, reduced bandwidth demands, or
    less dependence on a reliable network
    connection. There are few if any studies of the
    scalability of mobile-agent servers, particularly as
    the number of clients grows. We present some recent
    performance and scalability experiments that compare
    three mobile-agent platforms with each other and
    with a traditional client/server approach. The
    experiments show that mobile agents often outperform
    client/server solutions, but also demonstrate the
    deep interaction between environmental and
    application parameters. The three mobile-agent
    platforms have similar behavior but their absolute
    performance varies with underlying implementation
    choices. 
  }
}