On the Quantitative Assessment of Modular Multi-Agent System Architectures

A number of concerns in multi-agent systems (MAS) have a broadly-scoped impact on the system architectural decomposition, which in turn hinder the design of modular MAS architectures. These concerns inherently crosscut the boundaries of several architecture elements, such as components, connectors, and their interfaces. Typical examples of crosscutting concerns in MAS architecture include learning, mobility, coordination, context-awareness, and error handling. Nowadays there are some architectural proposals that envisage an emerging aspect-oriented architectural pattern as a potential solution to address modularity shortcomings of conventional architectural patterns for MAS designs. However, little effort has been dedicated to effectively assess when and which of these existing architectural solutions promote in fact superior modularity in the presence of typical crosscutting MAS concerns. This paper presents a quantitative comparison of aspect-oriented and traditional MAS architectures with respect to their support for promoting enhanced modularity in the presence of architectural crosscutting concerns in MAS design. Our evaluation used two medium-sized MAS applications and was centered on fundamental modularity attributes, such as separation of architectural concerns, architectural coupling, component cohesion, and interface simplicity.