Mobile Agent-Based Information Systems and Security

The rapid expansion of information and the high demand for timely data delivery have triggered the development of a large number of wireless information systems that enable users to access data from anywhere at anytime. These applications must face three major challenges: the limited bandwidth of wireless medium, intermittent network connectivity, and the fact that portable devices have limited CPU power, memory, and energy sources. Traditional distributed system design methods, such as the client/server-based computational model, cannot meet the aforementioned challenges very well. In contrast, a relatively new distributed system design paradigm, the mobile agent-based computation model, provides natural solutions to these problems. In this article, we will introduce the concept of mobile agent-based computing, review some examples of existing agent-based information systems, and discuss security issues that are related to them.