Bibliography

Multi-agent Concepts as Basis for Dynamic Plug-in Software Architectures

Lawrence Cabac , Michael Duvigneau, Daniel Moldt, and Heiko Rölke.
Multi-agent concepts as basis for dynamic plug-in software architectures.
In Proceedings of the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS 2005), pages 1157-1158, 2005.  [link]

In this work we present the basic concepts for a dynamic plug-in-based software architecture using concepts from the Petri net-based MAS framework Mulan. By transferring the concepts of agent-orientation to a plug-in-based architecture we are able to design our application and the plug-in-based system on an abstract level. Moreover, general problems that evolve from a highly dynamic and configurable architecture have been solved by basing the conceptual design on multi-agent principles. In this paper we discuss the general properties of extensible systems and the benefits that can be achieved when applying the multi-agent view to their architecture.
In addition to the conceptual modeling of such architectures, we provide a practical example where the concept has been successfully applied in the development of the latest release of Renew (Version 2 of the multi-formalism Petri net integrated development environment (IDE)). The overall monolithic architecture has been exchanged with a system that is divided into a plug-in management system and plug-ins that provide (user) functionality. Through the introduction of the multi-agent concepts, the new architecture is now - at runtime - dynamically extensible by registering plug-ins with the management system. The introduced concepts are applicable for any kind of architecture but most suitable for applications with dynamic structure.

BibTeX

@InProceedings{Cabac+05c,
  author = {Cabac, Lawrence and Duvigneau, Michael and Moldt, Daniel and R{\"o}lke, Heiko},
  title =        {Multi-agent Concepts as Basis for Dynamic Plug-in Software Architectures},
  booktitle =  {Proceedings of the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS 2005)},
  year = 2005,
  pages =        {1157--1158},
  abstract =     {In this work we present the basic concepts for a dynamic
                  plug-in-based software architecture using concepts from
                  the Petri net-based MAS framework Mulan. By transferring
                  the concepts of agent-orientation to a plug-in-based
                  architecture we are able to design our application and
                  the plug-in-based system on an abstract level.  Moreover,
                  general problems that evolve from a highly dynamic and
                  configurable architecture have been solved by basing the
                  conceptual design on multi-agent principles.  In this
                  paper we discuss the general properties of extensible
                  systems and the benefits that can be achieved when
                  applying the multi-agent view to their architecture.
                  \par
                  In addition to the conceptual modeling of such
                  architectures, we provide a practical example where the
                  concept has been successfully applied in the development
                  of the latest release of Renew (Version 2 of the
                  multi-formalism Petri net integrated development
                  environment (IDE)).  The overall monolithic architecture
                  has been exchanged with a system that is divided into a
                  plug-in management system and plug-ins that provide
                  (user) functionality. Through the introduction of the
                  multi-agent concepts, the new architecture is now - at
                  runtime - dynamically extensible by registering plug-ins
                  with the management system.
                  The introduced concepts are applicable for any kind of
                  architecture but most suitable for applications with
                  dynamic structure.},
  url =      {https://doi.org/10.1145/1082473.1082671},
  annotate = {Filename: masplugin-short, posterpresentation}
}