| dc.description.abstract | Network connectivity is no longer an expensive add-on. It has become
a basic feature of almost any computing facility, gradually it will
be found in products offered in parts of the consumer electronics
market traditionally not associated with communications; for example
Electrolux has made a networked refrigerator, NCR has announced a
networked microwave oven etc.
On the same stage, mobile computers, or laptops, are becoming
increasingly popular as users discover the benefits of having their work
electronically available whenever needed. Such a user may occasionally
connect to, and disconnect from the Internet.
In addition, the development of wireless technology release network nodes
from being connected at a fixed geographical location and thereby bias
the coming of so-called mobile computing. In Pittsburgh USA, at the
Carnegie Mellon University, computer users are offered wireless
connectivity to the Internet anywhere on campus.
Mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and devices like
GPS-receivers, MP3-players and digital cameras seems to integrate into
the same mobile unit. This opens for a new set of services. A user of
such services would like to travel seamlessly between sites on the
Internet without having to worry about which services are provided,
or how they are provided. This will be a challenge for Internet
service providers and software manufacturers.
In this master thesis we study how mobile agent technology may be
utilized to support mobile users. We examine how we may support the
mobile user with the same set of facilities at a visiting site as he
has available at his home site. This thesis considers mobile agent
technology in general, and presents some mobile agent platforms. We
then identify some relevant requirements for a mobile agent platform
which would fit the needs of our solution.
We also present some existing solutions like Jini and Salutation which
support mobility of users. We look at how they work (their mode of
operation), and how they provide facilities to the users.
The rest of this thesis describes how to represent and provide
facilities such that their functionality and user preferences are
preserved. Then we present our approach where we use mobile agent
technology to support facility discovery and provision for mobile
users. | nor |