Agent configuration management

WORKPLAN 2000

Draft, editor Bernard Burg

 

1          An objective for the work plan

 

The objective of this workplan is to specify a ‘system and reification’ agnostic  Agent Configuration Management allowing to manage and maintain clusters of platforms or agents, define configurations, dependencies, save and restore methods.

1.1          Technology

1.2          Functionality

·         Multi-agent management

·         Cross platform management

·         Multi-platform management

·         Dependency on agent management specifications

·         Dependency notation

·         Primitives to support agent management (monitor,…)

2          The specification generated by this work plan

Agent Configuration Management (old denomination FIPA Spec – 1999 – 015 – 0.1)

3          The plan to accomplish the work

·         This workplan should start at the Boston meeting in July 2000 and take12 months until it reaches the stage of preliminary specifications.

4          A vision for future work in this or related areas

This work carries out the terms of reference defined in January 1999. This work is much needed for the deployment of FIPA at large scales, and under various forms, the maintenance and administration of clusters of  agent and platforms.

5          An analysis of dependencies on other FIPA work plans, external standards work, industry events, and other factors

 

The following dependencies have been identified:

 

1.                    FIPA architecture specification

2.                    FIPA Agent Management

6          A list of FIPA members and other organizations supporting the plan, together with their degree of commitment.

 

Imperial College,                 Stefan Poslad                                    Committed

Fujitsu,                                   Jonathan Dale                                     Committed

Motorola,                             Bernard Burg                                       Committed

Nortel                                     Phil Buckle                                    Committed

NTT,                                       Kiyoshi Kogure                                   Committed

Toshiba                                TakahiroKawamura                             Committed

Siemens                                Michael Berger                                    Committed

 

 

Call for Proposal to be issued in Lisbon

Agent Configuration Management

3.1.1 Introduction

FIPA wishes to address the area of agent and platform configuration management to allow both agents and platforms to be managed individually or collectively.

 

3.1.2 Topics

The following are divided between normative topics (i.e. those areas where FIPA wishes to mandate the use of its technology) and informative topics (i.e. areas where background information or clarification of issues is required).

 

3.1.2.1 Normative Topics

·         Mechanisms to support the semi-automatic configuration and deployment of agents,

·         Expressing service level agreements and dependency information between agents (agent profiles),

·         Facilitating federations of platforms (platform profiles),

·         Managing the life cycles of agents and platforms,

·         Mechanisms for monitoring the states of agents and platforms,

·         Description of agent and platform ontologies,

·         Enhancing the capabilities of the AMS/DF to support agent configuration management.

 

3.1.2.2 Informative Topics

·         An informative annex will give examples of how to use the requirement and dependency information of agents.