Software Agents in Communications Network Management: An Overview

The software agent paradigm has evolved from a specialised stream of distributed artificial intelligence because of the emerging and commercially important need for software systems to inter-operate via heterogeneous networks. However, the software agent paradigm has taken a considerable amount of time to come to fruition in the communications domain, especially in the telecommunications world. From the early conceptions of software agents, where such agents would remove the need for humans to carry out mundane tasks, agent technology has been applied to all kinds of applications, from air traffic control to business workflow management. Telecommunications infrastructures are a natural application domain for Software Agents. We clarify the potential for the application of agent technology in the communications domain and provide an overview of publicly available research on software agents as used for network management and control. We will focus on the so called “stationary intelligent agent” type of software agent, although we will review the reasons why mobile agents have made an impact in this domain. The authors’ objective is to describe some of the intricacies of using the software agent approach in the management and control of communications systems. The paper is in three main sections. The first section provides a basic introduction to agent technology. The second section considers general problems of network management and the reasons why agents may provide a suitable solution. The third section reviews some selected research on agents in a telecommunications management framework.