Generic model of a mobile agent network suitable for performance evaluation

Deals with a generic model of a mobile agent network that includes a multi-agent system and a set of processing nodes connected by a communication network. A mobile agent network is described as a queuing system where mobile agents represent the information units that must be served. Network flows related to agent hosting and migration and the serving capabilities of processing nodes are proposed. The response time defining an interval between acquiring the request and producing the response is defined as a performance measure for a mobile agent network. A case study discussing response time evaluation is included.