Table Of ContentAgent Technology for Communication Infrastructures.
Edited by Alex L.G. Hayzelden, Rachel A. Bourne
Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
ISBNs:0-471-49815-7 (Hardback); 0-470-84181-8 (Electronic)
Agent Technology for
Communication Infrastructures
Agent Technology for
Communication Infrastructures
y bdetidE
Alex L. G. Hayzelden dn a Rachel A. Bourne
Queen Mary, University of London, UK
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Agent Technology for Communication Infrastructures.
Edited by Alex L.G. Hayzelden, Rachel A. Bourne
Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
ISBNs:0-471-49815-7 (Hardback); 0-470-84181-8 (Electronic)
Agent Technology for
Communications Infrastructure
Edited by:
Dr Alex L. G. Hayzelden,
Intelligent Systems Group,
Department of Electronic Engineering,
Queen Mary and Westfield College,
University of London,
London,
E1 4NS.
[email protected]
http://www.agentcom.org/
Dr Rachel A. Bourne,
Intelligent Systems Group,
Department of Electronic Engineering,
Queen Mary and Westfield College,
University of London,
London,
E1 4NS.
[email protected]
http://www2.elec.qmw.ac.uk/~rach/
Contents
Contributors.....................................................................................................................xvii
Preface................................................................................................................................xix
Acknowledgements.............................................................................................................xx
1 Agent Technology for Communications Infrastructure: An
Introduction........................................................................................1
1.1 Introduction..............................................................................................................1
1.2 Communications Infrastructure for Next-Generation Services...........................2
1.2.1 Mass production for a mass consumption service infrastructure........................2
1.2.2 Consumer-driven customisable service infrastructure........................................2
1.2.3 User requirements for a highly customisable service infrastructure...................3
1.2.4 Support for next-generation services..................................................................4
1.3 Agent Architectures.................................................................................................5
1.3.1 Mobile agent systems.........................................................................................6
1.3.2 Multi-agent systems............................................................................................6
1.4 Agent Technologies..................................................................................................6
1.4.1 Agent standards..................................................................................................7
1.4.2 Agent communication languages........................................................................8
1.4.3 Agent toolkits.....................................................................................................9
1.4.4 The FIPA agent standards................................................................................13
1.4.5 FIPA-OS: an agent platform based on the FIPA standards..............................14
1.4.5.1 Agent shell....................................................................................................15
1.4.5.2 Multi-tiered ACL communication.................................................................16
1.4.5.3 Conversation management...........................................................................16
1.4.5.4 Customisation...............................................................................................16
1.5 Summary and Following Chapters.......................................................................17
1.6 References...............................................................................................................18
2 An Agent-based Platform for Next-Generation IN Services........19
2.1 Introduction............................................................................................................19
2.2 What is PANI?........................................................................................................20
vi Contents
2.3 PANI Services.........................................................................................................20
2.3.1 Components of the PANI service architecture..................................................20
2.4 Dynamic Service Provision – Service Registration..............................................21
2.5 Service Description and Composition Languages: SDML and SCML..............21
2.6 Services Offered in the PANI Prototype..............................................................22
2.7 PANI Services – Implementation..........................................................................24
2.7.1 Client interaction..............................................................................................25
2.7.1.1 Fat-client......................................................................................................25
2.7.2 PANI WAP client.............................................................................................27
2.8 PANI and WAP......................................................................................................28
2.8.1 The WAP application.......................................................................................29
2.9 Conclusions.............................................................................................................30
2.10 References...............................................................................................................30
2.11 Further Reading.....................................................................................................31
3 Java Framework for Negotiating Management Agents...............32
3.1 Introduction............................................................................................................32
3.2 Preliminaries...........................................................................................................33
3.2.1 What is an agent?.............................................................................................33
3.2.2 Communication between agents.......................................................................33
3.2.3 A FIPA - 'flavoured' platform?.........................................................................34
3.2.3.1 Requirements on the agent platform............................................................34
3.2.3.2 FIPA mapping..............................................................................................35
3.3 The Java Management Agent: JAM.....................................................................36
3.3.1 Graphical user interface....................................................................................37
3.3.2 Implementation of the FIPA ACL....................................................................37
3.4 Asynchronous Message Handling in JAM...........................................................38
3.4.1 Directory facilitator service in JAM.................................................................39
3.5 Practical Experiences with Agent Applications...................................................39
3.5.1 Automatic resource brokering and trading service...........................................39
3.5.2 Server-side agents for complex websites..........................................................39
3.6 Conclusion...............................................................................................................40
3.7 References...............................................................................................................40
4 Adaptive QoS Management via Multiple Collaborative Agents..41
4.1 Introduction............................................................................................................41
Contents vii
4.2 Layers of Feedback Control: Individual Agent Adaptation...............................42
4.3 Call Preparation Adaptation: Service-Layer Feedback Controls......................44
4.4 Connection Control Adaptation: NE Layer Adaptation.....................................46
4.5 Integration of Service Management and Network Management Layer
Adaptation..............................................................................................................47
4.6 Adopting the Group Decision Support Techniques: A Committee Model........48
4.7 Modelling the Agents’ Committee.........................................................................50
4.8 Learning Agents’ Collaborative Experience by ANN.......................................52
4.8.1 Input layer........................................................................................................52
4.8.2 First hidden layer..............................................................................................52
4.8.3 Second hidden layer.........................................................................................53
4.9 ANN Integration with CBR Memory...................................................................53
4.10 Future Directions: Orbital Agents........................................................................54
4.11 References...............................................................................................................58
5 Agent-Mediated Trading: Intelligent Agents and E-Business......59
5.1 Introduction............................................................................................................59
5.2 E-Commerce: Some Facts and Figures.................................................................60
5.3 Intelligent Information Agents in Brief................................................................61
5.4 Agent-Based E-Trading.........................................................................................64
5.4.1 Basic enabling techniques for agent-mediated trading.....................................65
5.4.1.1 Content-based and collaborative recommendation..................................67
5.4.1.2 Coalition formation..................................................................................68
5.4.1.3 Auctions....................................................................................................69
5.4.2 The non-cooperative case: shopbots.................................................................70
5.4.3 The collaborative case: agents on markets and auctions...................................72
5.5 Conclusions and Outlook.......................................................................................73
5.6 References.............................................................................................................. 74
6 Distributed Control of Connection Admission to a
Telecommunications Network: Security Issues.............................77
6.1 Introduction............................................................................................................77
6.2 The Auction Mechanism for Selecting an SP.......................................................78
6.3 Security Problems...................................................................................................79
6.3.1 Authentication, secrecy and trust......................................................................79
viii Contents
6.3.1.1 Authentication PUA↔CA........................................................................79
6.3.1.2 Authentication RA↔CA...........................................................................80
6.3.1.3 Insecure communication channels...........................................................80
6.3.1.4 Certification of the CA.............................................................................80
6.3.2 Bidding protocol...............................................................................................80
6.3.2.1 Same opportunities for all bidders...........................................................80
6.3.2.2 Denial of service......................................................................................81
6.3.2.3 Repudiating bids.......................................................................................81
6.3.3 Scalability and reliability..................................................................................81
6.3.3.1 Limit of connecting PUAs.........................................................................81
6.3.3.2 Persistence of agents................................................................................81
6.4 Security Mechanisms.............................................................................................81
6.4.1 Public key infrastructure...................................................................................82
6.4.2 Non-repudiation protocol.................................................................................82
6.4.3 Secret sharing schemes.....................................................................................82
6.4.4 Tamper-proof environments.............................................................................82
6.4.5 Security in mobile agent systems......................................................................82
6.4.5.1 Malicious hosts problem..........................................................................83
6.5 Solving Security Problems in Auctions with an SP.............................................84
6.5.1 Using a Public Key Infrastructure....................................................................84
6.5.2 Regulatory Board.............................................................................................85
6.5.3 Persistence of agents........................................................................................85
6.5.4 Protecting the CA physically............................................................................85
6.5.5 Bidding protocol...............................................................................................86
6.5.6 Key distribution................................................................................................86
6.5.7 Scalability.........................................................................................................87
6.5.8 Others Problems...............................................................................................87
6.6 Conclusions.............................................................................................................87
6.7 References...............................................................................................................88
7 Secure Payments within an Agent-Based Personal Travel Market
............................................................................................................90
7.1 Introduction............................................................................................................90
7.2 An Agent-Based Personal Travel Market............................................................91
7.2.1 Personal Travel Agents (PTAs)........................................................................91
7.2.2 Travel Broker Agents (TBAs)..........................................................................92
7.2.3 Travel Service Agents (TSAs)..........................................................................92
7.3 Secure Payments.....................................................................................................92
7.3.1 SET...................................................................................................................93
7.3.2 SSL...................................................................................................................95
7.3.3 Direction chosen...............................................................................................95
Contents ix
7.4 Architectural Integration......................................................................................96
7.5 Securing Communication.......................................................................................99
7.6 Status Quo.............................................................................................................100
7.8 Conclusion.............................................................................................................100
7.9 References.............................................................................................................101
8 Multi-Agent Solution for Virtual Home Environment...............102
8.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................102
8.2 VHE Concept........................................................................................................102
8.3 Requirements for Supporting VHE....................................................................103
8.3.1 Customisation for each user...........................................................................103
8.3.2 Personal mobility............................................................................................103
8.3.3 Service provisioning corresponding to the user profile..................................104
8.3.4 Off-line operation...........................................................................................104
8.3.5 Automatic network configuration...................................................................104
8.3.6 Automatic service configuration.....................................................................104
8.3.7 Compensation of network quality...................................................................104
8.4 Multi-Agent Solution...........................................................................................104
8.4.1 Personal agent................................................................................................105
8.4.2 Network agent................................................................................................106
8.4.3 Radio agent.....................................................................................................107
8.5 Agent Platform.....................................................................................................107
8.5.1 Pathwalker......................................................................................................107
8.6 Prototype System..................................................................................................108
8.7 Conclusion.............................................................................................................110
8.8 References.............................................................................................................110
8.9 Further Reading...................................................................................................110
9 Virtual Home Environments to Be Negotiated by a Multi-Agent
System..............................................................................................111
9.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................111
9.2 UMTS....................................................................................................................112
9.3 What is Virtual Home Environment?.................................................................113
9.4 Agent Rationale....................................................................................................116
x Contents
9.5 Intelligent Network as a Trigger to the VHE.....................................................117
9.6 Proposed Agent Architecture..............................................................................118
9.7 Conclusion.............................................................................................................119
9.8 References.............................................................................................................120
10 Self-Adaptation for Performance Optimisation in an Agent-Based
Information System........................................................................122
10.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................122
10.2 The MoTiV-PTA System.....................................................................................123
10.2.1 Architecture of the MoTiV-PTA System........................................................123
10.3 A Simulation Engine for MoTiV-PTA............................................................125
10.3.1 The social interaction framework (SIF)..........................................................125
10.3.2 Architecture of the simulation engine.............................................................126
10.3.2.1 Explicit representation of servers...........................................................127
10.3.2.2 Integrated long-term simulation.............................................................128
10.3.2.3 Simulation of delay of communication among agents............................128
10.3.2.4 Migration................................................................................................129
10.3.2.5 Registration of UDAs.............................................................................129
10.3.2.6 Simulation of services.............................................................................129
10.3.3 PTA-specific simulation constructs in detail..................................................129
10.3.4 Functionality of the extended scenario script parser.......................................131
10.3.4.1 Relevant entities for the SIF simulation environment.............................132
10.3.4.2 Original MoTiV-PTA entities.................................................................132
10.3.5 User interface of the simulation engine..........................................................133
10.3.5.1 Control features of SIF...........................................................................133
10.3.5.2 Control features of the simulation manager...........................................134
10.4 Optimisation of MoTiV-PTA with GRAIL........................................................135
10.4.1 A generic resource allocation and integration algorithm (GRAIL)................135
10.4.2 Overview of the approach..............................................................................135
10.4.3 Implementing the optimisation procedure......................................................136
10.4.3.1 The micro-level optimisation..................................................................137
10.4.3.2 The macro-level optimization.................................................................138
10.4.4 Integrating heuristics from bottleneck analysis...............................................140
10.4.5 Integrating heuristics from machine learning.................................................140
10.4.6 The Extended User Interface..........................................................................141
10.4.6.1 Additional control features of the simulation manager..........................141
10.4.6.2 Extensions of the SIF script parser.........................................................141
10.5 Conclusion and Future Work..............................................................................142
10.6 References.............................................................................................................142
