Agent Based Transaction System

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Agent Based Transaction System

• CS790 Dr. Bruce Land
• Sanish Mondkar
• Sandeep Chakravarty

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What are mobile agents ?

• A mobile agent is an active object that can move
  both data and functionality (code) to multiple
  places within a distributed system.
• Mobile agents are defined in formal terms as
  objects that have behavior, state, and location
• The set of events varies a bit from model to
  model, but the following is a list of the most
  common ones Creation, Disposal, Dispatch,
  Arrival, Communication

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Why mobile agents?

• There are several applications where the mobile
  agents paradigm can be used successfully solve
  existing problems. The following is a
  cross-section of possible problems User
  passivity/data timeliness Multi-staged/multi-p
  rocessed calculations Untrusted
  collaborators Low-reliability/partially-discon
  nected networks

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Project Objectives

• To make a framework for mobile agents which would
  allow agents to move from node to node and
  execute at each node
• To incorporate security features so that agent
  activities are securely conducted
• To make the framework fully customizable so that
  a user can create his/her own agents as easily as
  creating applets and still use the facilities
  provided by the agent framework
• To study existing architectures for distributed
  systems and investigate the possibility of how an
  agent-based system can solve some of the inherent
  problems suffered by existing systems.
• To create a sample application that uses some of
  the features provided by the agent framework to
  do something useful.

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Applet Vs Agents

• Applets do not carry state
• Applets are instantiated by the receiving client
• Applets do not travel to multiple hosts

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Problem Areas

• Transportation
• Authentication
• Secrecy
• Standardization

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Design for Agent Host

• AgentServer
• AgentSpawner
• IncomingRequestMonitor
• RequestServicer

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Design for Agent

• Agent is a purely abstract class having some
  method declaration. Users wishing to write their
  own agents will have to
• 1. Inherit their customized agent from the
  abstract class Agent and implement all the
  methods
• 2. The main agent task will have to be put in a
  method called run. This is the method which shall
  be called by each receiving host while starting
  the agent thread.

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Agent Transfer Protocol

• Establish connection
• Send agent identity
• Receive result object
• Send agent
• Close connections

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Security Issues

• Authentication
• Controlling agent activity
• User option for agent acceptance

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SecurityOur Implementation

• Digital Signatures
• Message Digests
• User option for agent acceptance
• Possible extension to SSL

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Sample Application

• Bill Agent
• Transfer Agent
• Info Agent

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Other Approaches

• IBM Aglets WorkBench
• Java RMI

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Future Work...

• A layer of security can be added by using SSL for
  the agent transfer
• More study is needed to understand the
  feasibility of having an agent-based system
• AI algorithms can be used for making mobile
  agents equipped with negotiation capabilities

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Future Workcontd.

• For Electronic Commerce applications, there
  should be a mechanism by which a agent should be
  able to pay for the services used.
• More work is needed to make the Agent Host more
  robust in handling various agents
• Agents need more error handling capabilities. In
  case an agent dies during a task, then the sender
  should be informed of the failed transaction

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Conclusion

• Agent systems for groupware
• Existing problems are solved eg. Webcrawlers
• Network bandwidth optimally utilized