Final Questions

A: Formally, a mobile agent is an object that has behaviour, identity, state and location.

Q2) Why is Java a good candidate for mobile agent development?

A: There are certain requirements of any system that supports mobile agents. First and foremost, is the requirement for platform independence. The mobile agent code must be able to run on any machine it visits. Next, the system must provide a security solution. Finally, the system must provide a context or environment for the mobile agent. Java's use of bytecodes, interpreted execution and sandbox make it an ideal candidate for mobile agent programming.

Q3) Name several mobile agent apps.

A: Stock Monitoring Agents, Cubs Ticket Agents, Product Monitoring Agents, Travel and Reservation Agents

Q4) How does an agent save state in Java?

A: An agent maintains state at the application level and transports that state between distributed memory spaces using Java's serialization methods. Java's object serialization marshals and unmarshals the state of an object to and from a stream of bytes. An object is serializable if it implements either the serializable or externalizable interface.

Q5) What mobile agent system did the Mozart team demonstrate?

A: We used a free SDK available from IBM called the Aglet Software Development Kit http://www.trl.ibm.co.jp/aglets/ (ASDK v 1.0.3).: