Remote Database Querying using Mobile Agents

摘要

With mobile agents a new paradigm for distributed computing has gone on stage. In this article we analyze a suitable use of this technology: querying and retrieving information from remote databases over the Internet. More specifically, we present an application prototype that explores an inherently distributed field: Geographic Information Systems. This project has been implemented using Aglets, a Java-based mobile agents system developed by IBM Japan. The project makes use of Java facilities for database accessing from the language itself: the JDBC API. For this reason, in the first part of the article we offer a brief introduction to both technologies: Aglets agent system and JDBC. The rest of this paper is dedicated to explain how our application works, including details about its inner architecture and classes structure. Finally, we present our conclusions about our experience with aglets and how they can improve the network applications performance.