Abstract
This thesis investigates fault tolerance mechanisms for systems that make use of mobile agents.
The context for this research has been the use of agent systems in the purchase, sale and dynamic pricing of air tickets. This paper investigates the use of autonomous mobile agents that assist a user in search of airfare quotes. The aim of this work was to develop a general solution that guarantees the return of results from a mobile agent to a mobile terminal with an unstable network connection.
The thesis explores the theoretical foundation for the use of agents and looks at solutions for fault tolerance in systems that employ mobile or transactional agents. The paper includes a classification of publicised solutions pertaining to disconnected operation and mobile agents.
A prototype of the proposed solution has been implemented to illustrate the principal features of the fault tolerance mechanism. The prototype was implemented in the agent framework JADE.