Mobile Agent System for Network Topology Discovery

Current trend of increasing use of mobile devices such as PDA, Laptop, and intelligent cell phones etc., has given increased interest in wireless and mobile networks. The cost and complexity associated with infrastructure based wireless networking is leading researchers to investigate ad hoc networks. Managing ad hoc network is significantly different than managing infrastructred network. One of the major challenges in managing ad hoc network is discovery of the topology of the network on the fly. We have developed a mobile agent based system that allows for real time topology discovery of the network. As opposed to many such mobile agent based systems that utilize "ant" based algorithms, our system makes efficient use of the limited network resources of the ad hoc network by restricting the mobility of the agents. The mobile agent uses its mobility only to move to a new node after which it turns into a stationary agent. This paper provides an insight into designing a mobile agent based network topology discovery system using IBMcopy Aglets as well as presents our experience with an experimental approach rather than a more common simulation based approach. The paper also provides a comparison of IBM Aglets and JADE in the light of implementing a MAS for mobile ad hoc network