Agent survivability through power awareness

Wireless mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETS) of personal digital assistants (PDAs) are a growing field of study due to potential applications in environments that lack a functioning communications infrastructure. Mobile computing platforms such as PDAs and tablet PCs offer software designers great challenges to the design of survivable software applications. One of these challenges pertains to limited power resources. Processor loads, large amounts of wireless network activity, and input/output (I/O operations can strain the limited battery life inherent with such mobile platforms. In this paper we demonstrate how power awareness of software agents can increase system robustness and survivability. This paper presents first steps in a direction that can derive large payoffs for decentralized coordination and collaboration on power-constrained computing platforms.