MULTI-AGENT FRAMEWORK BEE-GENT

Bee-gent (see Kawamura, 2000; Bee-gent, 1999) is a multi-agent framework for realizing a flexible open distributed system, which integrates existing heterogeneous software applications, such as WWW servers, databases, software packages, legacy systems, etc., through use of the network. Figure 2 illustrates the concept of Bee-gent.

Figure 2: Concept of Multi-Agent Framework Bee-Gent

Bee-gent is composed of two kinds of agents , an agent wrapper and a mediation mobile agent. The agent wrapper agentifies an existing application by encapsulating an implementation of the wrapping application. It manages the states of the application, invoking the application when necessary. The mediation mobile agent provides a coordination process between applications through communications. It also migrates among the sites of the applications when it interacts with agent wrappers. Furthermore, Bee-gent adopts XML/ ACL as a representation format of the agent communication language FIPA Agent Communication Language (FIPA, 2000). By exchanging XML/ACL messages, agents can respond to the nature of received request messages and can determine the best action. Thus, inter-application coordination is realized through interactions between agent wrappers and mediation mobile agents.