The design of an architecture for software agents on mobile platforms

This paper illustrates an architectural interface linking mobile systems based on the Symbian OS with conventional Java-based applications in the context of mobile agents. The interface is needed because mobile agents have the ability to move between supporting computers in a network, but this is not possible within the restrictions of a Java-enabled telephone because no user-defined class loader can run. The architecture in question adopts a WAP-enabled portal to sign agents and download them to a mobile telephone. The portal notifies a push application in the telephone that automates the installation of the agent and gives it the parameters to locate the platform services on the mobile telephone. The network connection is assumed to be a GSM/GPRS connection.