A Java-based mobile agent framework for enterprise applications. (1st January 2002) - Chen, R.-S.
With the increasing amount of information, the flexible integration of a range of different IT applications is a focus key requirement for today's enterprises. Application integration is a thorny and complex distributed computing problem. Java and mobile agents are a good solution for distributed computing problems and XML helps to make document applications independent. The mobile agent, XML and Java Technology can be a significant aid to enterprise agility, particularly where distribution of information is a feature, as in the virtual enterprises. In this paper, we propose the Mobile Enterprise Information Portal (MEIP) for the enterprise applications. The mobile agent, Java and XML technologies are used in designing the MEIP. In the proposed architecture, a mobile agent can move from one host to another to use local resources and servers support agent query services to allow agents to discover each other and communicate information over the network. By the mobility and autonomy of mobile agents, we can improve the efficiency of enterprise applications and reduce traffic load caused by exchanging information. Java technology provides a platform-independent, portable software environment. Furthermore, we use MEIP guidelines to implement a knowledge management system by IBM's aglet. The contributions of this paper are: (1) use Java, mobile agent and XML technologies to compose an enterprise platform, which has the advantages of perfect integration, good performance and is easy to use; (2) apply 3-tier architecture to achieve high flexibility; (3) provide web-based application to user; and (4) use object-oriented analysis and design to construct and concrete the information system in the enterprise.