Agent Technology for Communication Infrastructures

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

1.3 Agent Architectures 5

1.4 Agent Technologies 6

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

2.3 PANI Services 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

2.8 PANI and WAP 28

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

3.3 The Java Management Agent: JAM 36

3.4 Asynchronous Message Handling in JAM 38

3.5 Practical Experiences with Agent Applications 39

3.6 Conclusion 40

3.7 References 40

4 Adaptive QoS Management via Multiple Collaborative Agents 41

4.1 Introduction 41

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

4.9 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

5.5 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

6.4 Security Mechanisms 81

6.5 Solving Security Problems in Auctions with an SP 84

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

7.3 Secure Payments 92

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

8.4 Multi-Agent Solution 104

8.5 Agent Platform 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

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

10.3 A Simulation Engine for MoTiV-PTA 125

10.4 Optimisation of MoTiV-PTA with GRAIL 135

10.5 Conclusion and Future Work 142

10.6 References 142

11 Flexible Decentralised Control of Connection Admission 144

11.1 Introduction 144

11.2 The Agent Model 145

11.3 Competing Service Providers 147

11.4 Resource Management Strategies 149

11.5 Conclusion 153

11.6 References 154

12 Low-Level Control of Network Elements from an Agent Platform 156

12.1 Introduction 156

12.2 Architectural Concepts 157

12.3 Interaction with the Network Elements – the Switch Wrapper Agent 159

12.4 Interaction with End-Systems Using ATM Signalling: the Proxy User Agent.161

12.5 Running IP applications 163

12.6 Conclusions 165

12.7 References 166

13 A Multi-Agent Approach to Dynamic Virtual Path Management in ATM Networks 167

13.1 Introduction 167

13.2 Network Management 167

13.3 Problem specification 173

13.4 Intelligent Agents 175

13.5 Multi-Agent System Proposal 177

13.6 Experimental Testbed 180

13.7 Conclusions and Future Work 183

13.8 References 183

14 A Multi-Agent Approach for Channel Allocation in Cellular Networks 185

14.1 Introduction 185

14.2 A Reactive Channel Allocation Scheme Implementation and Analysis 186

14.3 The Proposed Scheme Using Intelligent Agents 189

14.4 Conclusions 195

14.5 References 195

15 Predicting Quality-of-Service for Nomadic Applications Using Intelligent Agents 197

15.1 Introduction 197

15.2 Monads Overview 198

15.3 Methods for QoS Prediction 200

15.4 Monads System Components 203

15.5 Test Results 205

15.6 Discussion 206

15.7 Conclusions 207

15.8 References 208

16 Implementation of Mobile Agents for WDM Network Management: The OPTIMA Perspective 209

16.1 Introduction 209

16.2 Future IP/WDM Networks 210

16.3 Optical Transport Network 211

16.4 Optical Agents 214

16.5 Intelligent OTN Platform 218

16.6 Conclusion and Future Work 220

16.7 References 220

17 How to Move Mobile Agents 222

17.1 Introduction 222

17.2 Defining Tours for Mobile Agents 224

17.3 Optimising Tours for Mobile Agents 228

17.4 Conclusions 232

17.5 References 232

18 Market-Based Call Routing in Telecommunications Networks Using Adaptive Pricing and Real Bidding 234

18.1 Introduction 234

18.2 Background and Motivation 236

18.3 System Architecture 237

18.4 Designing Economically Rational Agents 240

18.5 Experimental Evaluation 243

18.6 Conclusions 246

18.7 References 247

19 IN Load Control Algorithms for Market-Based Multi-Agent Systems 249

19.1 Introduction 249

19.2 Algorithms for Control of SCP Overloads 251

19.3 Market-Based Multi-Agent Systems 254

19.4 IN Load Control Using a Market-Based Solution 257

19.5 Evaluation of the Algorithms 261

19.6 Conclusions 264

19.7 References 264

20 Victor – Proactive Fault Tracking and Resolution in Broadband Networks Using Collaborative Intelligent Agents 266

20.1 Introduction 266

20.2 Background: Concert Global Managed Platform 267

20.3 Assumptions 268

20.4 Functional Objectives of Victor 269

20.5 Design and Implementation Strategy for Victor MAS 269

20.6 Victor Development Environment 271

20.7 Victor User Interface 271

20.8 Future Plans 272

20.9 Concluding Remarks 273

20.10 References 274

21 Efficient Means of Resource Discovery Using Agents 275

21.1 Introduction 275

21.2 An Outline of an Agent 275

21.3 Search Problem 275

21.4 Models and Classification 276

21.5 Single Fixed Model 277

21.6 Single Mobile Model 279

21.7 Multiple Fixed Model 282

21.8 Conclusion 286

21.9 References and Further Reading 286

22 Evolving Routing Algorithms with Genetic Programming 287

22.1 Introduction 287

22.2 The Model 288

22.3 Research Aims 290

22.4 The Java Method Evolver (JME) 291

22.5 The Experiments 291

22.6 Results 292

22.7 Discussion and Future Work 293

22.8 References 294

Index 295