Which paradigm should I use? An analytical comparison of the client-server, remote evaluation and mobile agent paradigms

In this paper we deal with the study of the actual convenience of using the agent programming paradigm for accesssing distributed service. We try to p oint out the benefits of such a communication paradigm, by providing an ana lytical study of its basic features in comparison with the client-server ap proach and remote evaluation The aim of the paper is to show how the Petri net analysis technique can he used for deciding whether to use traditional client/server, remote evaluation or mobile agents paradigm in designing a p articular evaluation. So, me present several models of non-Markovian Petri nets, which have been solved through the WebSPN tool, and me provide a clos e comparison between the agents technique, the client/server and the remote evaluation communication paradigm. The results that we hare obtained show how agents must not always be considered the only solution to an communicat ion issue, since in several cases their use might even reveal a drawback. W e also focus out attention on providing some practical remarks, which can h elp the developer during the design in order to select the communication pa radigm which best suits the features of the application that has to he deve loped. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.