1,721,026 research outputs found
Towards a Framework for Developing Mobile Agents for Managing Distributed Information Resources
No full textDistributed information management tools allow users to author, disseminate, discover and manage information within large-scale networked environments, such as the Internet. Agent technology provides the flexibility and scalability necessary to develop such distributed information management applications. We present a layered organisation that is shared by the specific applications that we build. Within this organisation we describe an architecture where mobile agents can move across distributed environments, integrate with local resources and other mobile agents, and communicate their results back to the user
Achieving User Interface Heterogeneity in a Distributed Environment
No full textThe introduction of distribution into the field of computing has enhanced the possibilities of information processing and interchange on scales which could not previously be achieved with stand-alone machines. However, the successful distribution of a process across a distributed system requires three problems to be considered; how the functionality of a process is distributed, how the data set on which the process works is distributed and how the interface that allows the process to communicate with the outside world is distributed. The focus of the work in this paper lies in describing a model that attempts to provide a solution to the latter problem. The model that has been developed allows the functionality of a process to be separated from and to exist independently from its interface and employs user interface independent display languages to provide distributed and heterogeneous user interfaces to processes. This separation also facilitates access to a service from diverse platforms and can support user interface mobility and third-party application integration. The goals and advantages of this model are partially realised in a prototype that has been designed around the WWW and its associated protocols, and it is predicted how the model could be fully realised by adopting a modular and object-oriented approach, as advocated by the Java programming environment
A Mobile Agent Architecture for Distributed Information Management
No full textLarge-scale networked environments, such as the Internet, possess the characteristics of distributed data, distributed access and distributed control; this gives the user a powerful mechanism for building and integrating large repositories of distributed information from diverse resource sets. However, few support tools have been developed to allow the user to take advantage of the distributed nature of their information. Distributed information management is the process by which users can create, disseminate, discover and manage information that is spread across distributed resources. Distributed open hypermedia systems have shown how distributed information, such as documents and hypermedia links, can be managed and handled within an environment that integrates smoothly between the user's desktop and the network. However, such systems are now looking at addressing the problem of interoperability across hypermedia systems, so that documents and links can be shared between users on heterogeneous integrating technologies. This thesis proposes that the distributed information management provided by open hypermedia systems needs to be extended so that it is more interoperable, extensible and pervasive and that this can be achieved by integrating the principles of open hypermedia with the technology of mobile agents. Mobile agents present a new development mechanism for designing and building distributed applications which are well suited to the dynamic environment of large-scale networks. This thesis describes the development of a mobile agent architecture within which distributed information management tasks can be built and executed. Mobile agents present an important abstraction mechanism when designing distributed environments and also allow the user to manage distributed information indirectly through their mobile agents. A number of prototype agents are described that have been developed to illustrate distributed information management tasks within the architecture and to show how abstractionism and indirect management can be achieved
A Mobile Agent Architecture to Support Distributed Resource Information Management
No full textThe problems of information management on a large and distributed scale have become highly apparent during the last five years. The information explosion that has taken place, particularly with the exponential growth of the World Wide Web, has shown that users treat information, especially hyperlinked information, as a valuable resource. However, the electronic information community is already showing signs of what has been commonly termed 'information overload'. This trend will continue to increase unless users are equipped with the necessary tools to allow them to mine and navigate this commodity. The current set of tools that are available to the user, whilst useful, have proven to be of limited use, due to the fact that they only individually deal with relatively small subsets of the global information available. This thesis advocates the integration of two technologies; distributed information management to provide tools to allow the user to discover, navigate and control information and mobile agent technology to allow the user to access and manage information that is distributed over large areas. It also presents a framework within which mobile agents can move across distributed environments, integrate with local resources and other mobile agents, and communicate the results of their activities back to the user. This framework can then be used to build mobile agents that perform user-driven tasks to fulfil distributed information management goals
A Mobile Agent Architecture for Distributed Information Management
No full textLarge-scale networked environments, such as the Internet, possess the characteristics of distributed data, distributed access and distributed control; this gives the user a powerful mechanism for building and integrating large repositories of distributed information from diverse resources. However, few support tools have been developed to allow the user to take advantage of the distributed nature of their information. To help address this problem, we advocate the integration of two technologies; distributed information management principles to allow users to create, disseminate, discover and manage their information, and mobile agent technology to provide the flexibility, scalability and dynamism necessary to develop such distributed information management applications. We present four principles that we have identified as being key to achieving distributed information management and an architecture where mobile agents can move across distributed environments, integrate with local resources and other mobile agents, and communicate their results back to the user. We also describe a number of prototype distributed information management agents that we have developed
Distributed Information Management with Mobile Agents
No full textWith more users taking advantage of publicly accessible networks, such as corporate intranets and the Internet, larger amounts of information is becoming electronically distributed and disseminated. Distributed information management is an emerging technology for dealing with the problems of managing information that is spread across networks, users and applications. We present four categories that we consider being necessary to developing tools to undertake distributed information management tasks. To help model the dynamic and heterogeneous nature of a user's distributed information, we advocate the use of agents and agent technologies when building distributed information management applications. We present an agent-oriented architecture which is based around a concept of mobile agents, since they provide a convenient abstraction for modelling distributed applications
An Open Framework for Integrating Widely Distributed Hypermedia Resources
No full textThe success of the WWW has served as an illustration of how hypermedia functionality can enhance access to large amounts of distributed information. However, the WWW and many other distributed hypermedia systems offer very simple forms of hypermedia functionality which are not easily applied to existing applications and data formats, and cannot easily incorporate alternative functions which would aid hypermedia navigation to and from existing documents that have not been developed with hypermedia access in mind. This paper describes the extension to a distributed environment of the open hypermedia functionality of the Microcosm system, which is designed to support the provision of hypermedia access to a wide range of source material and application, and to offer straightforward extension of the system to incorporate new forms of information access
Unifying Distributed Processing and Open Hypertext through a Heterogeneous Communication Model
No full textA successful distributed open hypermedia system can be characterised by a scaleable architecture which is inherently distributed. While the architects of distributed hypermedia systems have addressed the issues of providing and retrieving distributed resources, they have often neglected to design systems with the inherent capability to exploit the distributed processing of this information. The research presented in this paper describes the construction and use of an open hypermedia system concerned equally with both of these facets
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