Project No.: 5003-045335 01.03.96 - 31.12.99

Project leader: Prof. Dennis Tsichritzis, Centre Universitaire d’Informatique (CUI), University of Geneva
e-mail: dt@cui.unige.ch

Name of project: ASAP: Agent System Architectures and Platforms

Partners: Dr. Alexander Herrigel, Securights Ltd., Zurich

Funding: Sfr 647,306.-

Summary:
ASAP, part of the MEDIA integrated research project, deals with design problems of distributed applications by using mobile software agents in large dynamic computer networks. Such agents contain a new paradigm for the design and implementation of distributed applications. Each agent is a self-contained, autonomous unit capable of moving around the network and interacting with both other agents and local services. The concrete goal of ASAP is to deliver a platform supporting the development of applications based on such mobile software agents. This technology yields an infrastructure on which to develop commercial information systems in large, dynamic and heterogeneous networks.

The following results are available from phase one:

• Development of a JAVA-based mobile software agents system;
• Design and implementation of a JAVA supplement designed to increase run-time security;
• Development of a prototype for electronic newspaper-article distribution;
• Integration with the other MEDIA subprojects;
• In addition, several international workshops were organized and a book on mobile software agent systems was published by Springer Verlag.

Phase two will investigate the following aspects in greater depth:

• Development of an improved virtual JAVA machine and byte transport format designed to improve security;
• Efficiency enhancement.

Concrete deliverables are algorithms, an improved JAVA virtual machine and a source-code processor. The results are building-blocks for the MEDIA project.

Cooperation: Partners are the University of Nice and Securights Ltd, Zurich.