Cooperating Mobile Agents for Mapping Networks

. Contemporary computer networks are heterogeneous; even a single network consists of many kinds of processors and communications channels. But few programming tools embrace, or even acknowledge, this complexity. New methods and approaches are required if next-generation networks are to be configured, administered and utilized to their full potentials. The growing field of mobile agents research seeks to address problems in this domain. In this paper we describe a strategy for mapping a network using a collection of cooperating mobile agents. We present results from a simulation of such a system and discuss the relationship between diversity of the agent population and overall efficiency of the system. Knowledge of the topology of a computer network is a prerequisite for all higherorder interactions between nodes on that network. In current systems, routing maps are usually generated in a centralized (and often human-mediated) manner. Our mobile-agents approach, in contrast, is highly ..