Intelligent agents negotiate services for customers
The TORRENT project set out to build a realistic test-bed for an end-user access network carrying different types of services, such as telephone, Internet and video. The project team decided to base its Service and Resource Management (SRM) software on intelligent agent technology. The decision was enforced since it supports scalability in network size and customer base, plug-and-play through standardised interfaces, and flexibility with regards to different services and standards. Software agents are designed to carry out tasks pro-actively on behalf of users, who only have to specify what they want done. Rather than software that requires detailed instructions from the user, intelligent agents should be able to carry out repetitive tasks such as information retrieval and information management semi-autonomously. The agents developed by the TORRENT project are designed to negotiate, initiate and control calls and sessions of service provision with different network operators. The platform is compliant with agent standards produced by the Foundation of Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA), the standards organisation for agents and multi-agent systems, and now an official IEEE Standards Committee. The intelligent software agents negotiate with network providers based on preferences set by the customer, along with service availability and constraints set by the network operator. These can include ability to pay, authorisation, available bandwidth and network policy. The intelligent agent system also handles user synchronisation, monitoring messages and packet-handling through Netfilter, the Linux kernel firewall framework. The project participants are particularly interested in further development, public-private partnerships or marketing agreements in collaboration with venture capitalists or SMEs.