A common multi-agent testbed for diverse seamless personal information networking applications

Abstract

This article describes the design and implementation of a unique cooperative agents testbed aimed at addressing diverse applications for the difficult problem of seamless personal information networking (SPIN). The real-world SPIN testbed is aimed at two difficult applications. Namely seamless messaging and intelligent network management. Both applications are agent-driven and share agent behavior, and the messaging agents rely on the network management device diagnostic agents for input. The article introduces both problem areas in a common testbed. The first-generation seamless messaging application is described in detail. User-centric seamless messaging assumes heterogeneous communication environments intended to support today's nomadic users. The prototype is introduced for the management of messages across distributed information networks. Its aim is to intercept, filter, interpret, and deliver multimodal messages, be they voice, fax, video, and/or e-mail messages. A user's personal communication agent is charged with delivering messages to the recipient regardless of their target messaging device-a telephone, pager, desktop, wireless laptop, or wireless phone. Personal communication agents classify and act on incoming messages based on their content. A secretary agent routes and tailors urgent messages appropriately to the device manager agent, which delivers the message to a device on which the user may be roaming or active. What makes the seamless messaging application unique is its approach to treating a message in a universal manner, and its ability to mediate between different messaging environments and devices, and to try to track and find the user.