FIPA-compliant agents for real-time control of Intelligent Network traffic

Autonomy, adaptability, scalability, and flexible communications are all at tributes of agents and multi-agent systems which suggest that they may offe r timely solutions for dealing with the growing complexity of the tasks of traffic control and resource management in telecommunications networks. How ever, if agent-based solutions to network management problems are to be suc cessful then it will be important that heterogeneous agents and agent platf orms inter-operate in accordance with internationally accepted standards. A lthough standards of this nature are being developed, they are not tailored specifically to the needs of the telecommunications domain, with the resul t that important issues, such as support for the operation of agent systems in real-time constrained environments, do not seem to be adequately addres sed. We present two agent-based systems for control of traffic load and res ource allocation in Intelligent Networks. One of these strategies is based on the concepts of 'Market-based Control', the other on the concepts of 'An t Colony Optimisation'. Using the market-based strategy as an example we sh ow that enhancements to existing FIPA specifications would be required to i mplement these strategies in order to satisfy their real-time operation con straints. We also suggest a number of potential enhancements to FIPA specif ications that would alleviate some of the identified problems. (C) 1999 Els evier Science B.V. All rights reserved.