A novel fault-tolerant execution model by using of mobile agents

The exponential expansion of the Internet and the widespread popularity of the World Wide Web give a challenge to experts on reliable and secure system design, e.g., e-economy applications. New paradigms are on demand and mobile agent technology is one of the features. In this paper, we propose a fault-tolerance execution model by using of mobile agents, for the purpose of consistent and correct performance with a required function under stated conditions for a specified period of time. Failures are classified into two classes based on their intrinsic different effects on mobile agents. For each kind of failure, a specified handling method is adopted. The introduction of exceptional handling method allows performance improvements during mobile agents' execution. The behaviors of mobile agents are statistically analyzed through several key parameters, including the migration time from node to node, the life expectancy of mobile agents, and the population distribution of mobile agents, to evaluate the performance of our model. The analytical results give new theoretical insights to the fault-tolerant execution of mobile agents and show that our model outperforms the existing fault-tolerant models. Our model provides an effective way to improve the reliability of computer systems. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.