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International Workshop on Mobile Object Systems

MOS 1996: Mobile Object Systems Towards the Programmable Internet pp 25–45Cite as

Mobile agents: Are they a good idea?

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1222))

Abstract

Mobile agents are programs, typically written in a script language, which may be dispatched from a client computer and transported to a remote server computer for execution. Several authors have suggested that mobile agents offer an important new method of performing transactions and information retrieval in networks. Other writers have pointed out, however, that mobile agents introduce severe concerns for security. We consider the advantages offered by mobile agents and assess them against alternate methods of achieving the same function. We conclude that, while the individual advantages of agents do not represent an overwhelming motivation for their adoption, the creation of a pervasive agent framework facilitates a very large number of network services and applications.

The original version of this paper was completed in 1994, but its main conclusions remain valid today; see the following article in this volume for a brief update.

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Authors
  1. David Chess
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  2. Colin Harrison
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  3. Aaron Kershenbaum
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Editor information

Jan Vitek Christian Tschudin

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© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Chess, D., Harrison, C., Kershenbaum, A. (1997). Mobile agents: Are they a good idea?. In: Vitek, J., Tschudin, C. (eds) Mobile Object Systems Towards the Programmable Internet. MOS 1996. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1222. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-62852-5_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-62852-5_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-62852-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-68705-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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