Migration of Mobile Agents in Java: Problems, Classification and Solutions

In this paper, we examine migration techniques of mobile agents in Java. We identify the problems in Java technology, classify different migration styles and present possible solutions and related work. The proposed classification distinguishes between code migration, execution migration and data migration. The classification defines a partial order to compare different migration approaches. For realizing strong migration in Java, two solutions are proposed. On the one hand, a pre-processor adds all the necessary information for migration to the source code before compilation time. On the other hand, A JNI-based plugin for any virtual machine provides mechanisms to captures the agent’s execution state. The restoration of the execution state is done by the plugin in combination with a byte code modifier which slightly changes the byte code of the agent.