Shift from protocols to agents

The article discusses the shift from protocols to agents for the Internet by Sun Microsystems. Instead of extending the capability of the network by defining new protocols and having to test the many implementations of the protocols for compatibility, we create the ability to send Java implementations of protocols around the network to machines that include the Java Virtual Machine (Java VM). In this new architecture, the RMI (remote method invocation) protocol by which the Java VM exchanges agents becomes a "protocol to end all protocols".