Software Agent Technology in Mobile Service Environments

The demand for mobility in modern societies leads to the development of smaller and wireless networked computational devices. The resulting service environments for future mobile service networks will be complex. The individual character of future services requires highly flexible service infrastructures and development frameworks. We propose agent technology for the implementation of mobile services to reduce the complexity of mobile service infrastructures. We present JIAC IV, a Java-based agent framework designed with the service as a modelling abstraction. JIAC IV delivers a highly integrated set of tools for the analysis, design, and development of agent-based software services. Utilising the JIAC IV agent toolkit, a service developer focuses on application logic using agent services and the co-operation between agents. This will lead to faster service development cycles despite the increasing complexity of the environments. Encapsulation and communication between independent functional units can be a way to manage future complexity of service networks, and software agents are its technological implementation.