Rational server selection for mobile agents: Problem solution and performance analysis

Since agents have the ability to migrate to outperforming resources they can potentially balance the load of heterogeneous systems. However, to balance resources efficiently agents must take the load into account. Thus, to support the agent migration strategy the application of server selection systems has been proposed recently. Server selection systems keep track of the load of network and host resources and hence predict the performance of different migration strategies. Yet, server selection comes at a cost and therefore agents must take care when applying it. This paper presents a decision strategy for the agent's decision problem. The performance of the approach is analysed with the help of a simple queuing model.