Description
Book SynopsisThe text intersects the convergence between distributed Artificial Intelligence (agents) and telecommunications and demonstrates the increased capabilities of agents that are not currently achievable using traditional standards-based network signalling.
Trade Review"Will attract attention as one of the leading publications in the intersection between DAI and telecommunications" -Dr Steve Willmott, , EPFL, Switzerland
"The work presented is original and is undertaken by leaders in the field."-Dr Stefan Poslad, , Imperial College of Science and Technology and Medicine, University of London
Table of ContentsContributors xvii
Preface xix
Acknowledgements xx
1 Agent Technology for Communications Infrastructure: An Introduction 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Communications Infrastructure for Next-Generation Services 2
1.3 Agent Architectures 5
1.4 Agent Technologies 6
1.5 Summary and Following Chapters 17
1.6 References 18
2 An Agent-based Platform for Next-Generation IN Services 19
2.1 Introduction 19
2.2 What is PANI? 20
2.3 PANI Services 20
2.4 Dynamic Service Provision – Service Registration 21
2.5 Service Description and Composition Languages: SDML and SCML 21
2.6 Services Offered in the PANI Prototype 22
2.7 PANI Services – Implementation 24
2.8 PANI and WAP 28
2.9 Conclusions 30
2.10 References 30
2.11 Further Reading 31
3 Java Framework for Negotiating Management Agents 32
3.1 Introduction 32
3.2 Preliminaries 33
3.3 The Java Management Agent: JAM 36
3.4 Asynchronous Message Handling in JAM 38
3.5 Practical Experiences with Agent Applications 39
3.6 Conclusion 40
3.7 References 40
4 Adaptive QoS Management via Multiple Collaborative Agents 41
4.1 Introduction 41
4.2 Layers of Feedback Control: Individual Agent Adaptation 42
4.3 Call Preparation Adaptation: Service-Layer Feedback Controls 44
4.4 Connection Control Adaptation: NE Layer Adaptation 46
4.5 Integration of Service Management and Network Management Layer Adaptation 47
4.6 Adopting the Group Decision Support Techniques: A Committee Model 48
4.7 Modelling the Agents’ Committee 50
4.8 Learning Agents’ Collaborative Experience by ANN 52
4.9 ANN Integration with CBR Memory 53
4.10 Future Directions: Orbital Agents 54
4.11 References 58
5 Agent-Mediated Trading: Intelligent Agents and E-Business 59
5.1 Introduction 59
5.2 E-Commerce: Some Facts and Figures 60
5.3 Intelligent Information Agents in Brief 61
5.4 Agent-Based E-Trading 64
5.5 Conclusions and Outlook 73
5.6 References 74
6 Distributed Control of Connection Admission to a Telecommunications Network: Security Issues 77
6.1 Introduction 77
6.2 The Auction Mechanism for Selecting an SP 78
6.3 Security Problems 79
6.4 Security Mechanisms 81
6.5 Solving Security Problems in Auctions with an SP 84
6.6 Conclusions 87
6.7 References 88
7 Secure Payments within an Agent-Based Personal Travel Market 90
7.1 Introduction 90
7.2 An Agent-Based Personal Travel Market 91
7.3 Secure Payments 92
7.4 Architectural Integration 96
7.5 Securing Communication 99
7.6 Status Quo 100
7.8 Conclusion 100
7.9 References 101
8 Multi-Agent Solution for Virtual Home Environment 102
8.1 Introduction 102
8.2 VHE Concept 102
8.3 Requirements for Supporting VHE 103
8.4 Multi-Agent Solution 104
8.5 Agent Platform 107
8.6 Prototype System 108
8.7 Conclusion 110
8.8 References 110
8.9 Further Reading 110
9 Virtual Home Environments to Be Negotiated by a Multi-Agent System 111
9.1 Introduction 111
9.2 UMTS 112
9.3 What is Virtual Home Environment? 113
9.4 Agent Rationale 116
9.5 Intelligent Network as a Trigger to the VHE 117
9.6 Proposed Agent Architecture 118
9.7 Conclusion 119
9.8 References 120
10 Self-Adaptation for Performance Optimisation in an Agent-Based Information System 122
10.1 Introduction 122
10.2 The MoTiV-PTA System 123
10.3 A Simulation Engine for MoTiV-PTA 125
10.4 Optimisation of MoTiV-PTA with GRAIL 135
10.5 Conclusion and Future Work 142
10.6 References 142
11 Flexible Decentralised Control of Connection Admission 144
11.1 Introduction 144
11.2 The Agent Model 145
11.3 Competing Service Providers 147
11.4 Resource Management Strategies 149
11.5 Conclusion 153
11.6 References 154
12 Low-Level Control of Network Elements from an Agent Platform 156
12.1 Introduction 156
12.2 Architectural Concepts 157
12.3 Interaction with the Network Elements – the Switch Wrapper Agent 159
12.4 Interaction with End-Systems Using ATM Signalling: the Proxy User Agent.161
12.5 Running IP applications 163
12.6 Conclusions 165
12.7 References 166
13 A Multi-Agent Approach to Dynamic Virtual Path Management in ATM Networks 167
13.1 Introduction 167
13.2 Network Management 167
13.3 Problem specification 173
13.4 Intelligent Agents 175
13.5 Multi-Agent System Proposal 177
13.6 Experimental Testbed 180
13.7 Conclusions and Future Work 183
13.8 References 183
14 A Multi-Agent Approach for Channel Allocation in Cellular Networks 185
14.1 Introduction 185
14.2 A Reactive Channel Allocation Scheme Implementation and Analysis 186
14.3 The Proposed Scheme Using Intelligent Agents 189
14.4 Conclusions 195
14.5 References 195
15 Predicting Quality-of-Service for Nomadic Applications Using Intelligent Agents 197
15.1 Introduction 197
15.2 Monads Overview 198
15.3 Methods for QoS Prediction 200
15.4 Monads System Components 203
15.5 Test Results 205
15.6 Discussion 206
15.7 Conclusions 207
15.8 References 208
16 Implementation of Mobile Agents for WDM Network Management: The OPTIMA Perspective 209
16.1 Introduction 209
16.2 Future IP/WDM Networks 210
16.3 Optical Transport Network 211
16.4 Optical Agents 214
16.5 Intelligent OTN Platform 218
16.6 Conclusion and Future Work 220
16.7 References 220
17 How to Move Mobile Agents 222
17.1 Introduction 222
17.2 Defining Tours for Mobile Agents 224
17.3 Optimising Tours for Mobile Agents 228
17.4 Conclusions 232
17.5 References 232
18 Market-Based Call Routing in Telecommunications Networks Using Adaptive Pricing and Real Bidding 234
18.1 Introduction 234
18.2 Background and Motivation 236
18.3 System Architecture 237
18.4 Designing Economically Rational Agents 240
18.5 Experimental Evaluation 243
18.6 Conclusions 246
18.7 References 247
19 IN Load Control Algorithms for Market-Based Multi-Agent Systems 249
19.1 Introduction 249
19.2 Algorithms for Control of SCP Overloads 251
19.3 Market-Based Multi-Agent Systems 254
19.4 IN Load Control Using a Market-Based Solution 257
19.5 Evaluation of the Algorithms 261
19.6 Conclusions 264
19.7 References 264
20 Victor – Proactive Fault Tracking and Resolution in Broadband Networks Using Collaborative Intelligent Agents 266
20.1 Introduction 266
20.2 Background: Concert Global Managed Platform 267
20.3 Assumptions 268
20.4 Functional Objectives of Victor 269
20.5 Design and Implementation Strategy for Victor MAS 269
20.6 Victor Development Environment 271
20.7 Victor User Interface 271
20.8 Future Plans 272
20.9 Concluding Remarks 273
20.10 References 274
21 Efficient Means of Resource Discovery Using Agents 275
21.1 Introduction 275
21.2 An Outline of an Agent 275
21.3 Search Problem 275
21.4 Models and Classification 276
21.5 Single Fixed Model 277
21.6 Single Mobile Model 279
21.7 Multiple Fixed Model 282
21.8 Conclusion 286
21.9 References and Further Reading 286
22 Evolving Routing Algorithms with Genetic Programming 287
22.1 Introduction 287
22.2 The Model 288
22.3 Research Aims 290
22.4 The Java Method Evolver (JME) 291
22.5 The Experiments 291
22.6 Results 292
22.7 Discussion and Future Work 293
22.8 References 294
Index 295
