An evaluation study of mobile agent technology: standardization, implementation and evolution

This paper examines the current status of standardization efforts concerning mobile agent technology and presents five Java-based mobile agent platforms (MAPs). Standards relating to mobile agent technology are presented first followed by a comparative presentation of five Java-based mobile agent platforms. The presentation addresses mainly qualitative characteristics of the platforms from the application developer's point of view. Some performance measurements are also presented. The paper concludes with some general remarks on the future of this technology.