Fast File Access for Fast Agents

Mobile agents are a powerful tool for coordinating general purpose distributed computing, where the main goal is high performance. In this paper we demonstrate how the inherent mobility of agents may be exploited to achieve fast file access, which is necessary for most general-purpose applications. We present a file system for mobile agents based exclusively on local disks of the participating workstations. The mobility of agents allows us to make all file operations local, which significantly reduces access time. We also demonstrate how code files and special system files can be handled efficiently in a localdisk-based environment.