The Role of Agents in Adaptive Service Oriented Architectures

This work analyses the role of agent-based software and organisation theoretical solutions in the development of Adaptive Service Oriented Architectures. This solution aims to support integrated, scalable, and re-usable information delivery systems. This technology is required in applications that operate in complex service delivery environments, such as Electronic Government (eGov) systems, emergency response coordinators, social networks, and mobile services. In these scenarios, the intricacy of service orchestration strategies grows proportionally with the number of operational components, complexity of interactions, and degree of dynamism of the environment. We argue that strategies based on fixed workflows are insufficient to support complex content delivery services. To that end, we propose a solution that encompasses an organisation-based system architecture enacted by agent-based software components. It inherently provides the features of contextualisartion, adaptiveness, flexible workflow mechanism, and proactiveness based on desirable characteristics of the agent technology. We introduce a conceptual model, detail the technical proposal, and demonstrate how the solution supports the demands of complex content delivery services.