Using IP multicast to improve communication in large scale mobile agent systems

Two major challenges for the operation of mobile agent systems in a global networking environment are the tasks of providing an efficient infrastructure for remote inter-agent communication and of locating agents during their remote execution. The potential partners of a mobile agent form an overwhelmingly large population that is constantly fluctuating as individual agents move between different locations in pursuit of their tasks. Communication patterns range from simple two-party exchanges to long lasting coordination cycles among sizable agent groups. While adequate for the simpler cases conventional messaging and directory mechanisms fail to scale up to the requirements of ensuring consistency and mutual location among many highly agile parties as demanded by more complex agent configurations. In this paper we present an approach to the remote coordination of dynamic agent groups based on the IP multicast model. By dynamically associating a multicast address with an agent group we gain a cost efficient means of communication that can be easily adapted to dynamic changes in location and membership