Agents

Abstract

The future is likely to see an increase in the use of agents. These are programs which automate user tasks, and are the next natural step in the development of distributed systems. Their great advantage is that they are designed to run over distributed computing systems, whereas traditional utility programs typically run on a peer-to-peer type connection. Figure A7.1 shows some of the applications of agents. They are particularly useful when working remotely from a server (especially when there is no current network connection), and for processing data that can be presented in a convenient form. For example, an agent could monitor the prices of stocks and shares, and then automatically buy and sell shares when a certain level is reached, or when the market behaves in a certain way. Another agent might seek the best price of an airline flight. This could involve the agent contacting server databases for airline prices and making requests for further details. The agent could then make a decision on which of the airline flights would be the best, for a given set of attributes (such as cost of flight, timing of flight, seat positions, airport locations, and so on).