A prototype mobile-agent application

Mobile agents, a relatively new paradigm for distributed software development, has become an accessible technology in recent years. The potential benefits of this paradigm, including the reduction of network bandwidth consumption and latency, promise to revolutionize distributed applications A number of research institutions and industrial entities have engaged in the development of elaborate supporting systems for this technology, and the deployment of its applications can be expected to proliferate. This paper describes a small-scale project undertaken to explore the feasibility of this technology, the technical issues, and its effects on network applications.