Using XML To Help Isolate Software Systems and Agents From Change Due to Communications

Abstract

Development and research into distributed and agent based systems has grown enormously over the last few years, and the number of practical applications for such systems has grown along with it as the technology and infrastructure improves to accommodate such systems. As with all systems, evolution and change is inevitable, but with the growth of distributed systems and the Service Oriented Architecture, we have another dimension of change we need to consider; that of communication. The importance of the role of communication between these systems has been highlighted by many researchers, particularly for multi-agent systems and for distributed communicating agents. But the form of such communication often remains a mystery. Communication aspects are often dependent on other factors within an architectural framework, particularly the data. In order to reduce unnecessary changes to the communication aspects of a system, we need to insulate the communication as much as possible from consequential change effected by architectural other framework elements. A message system using an XML-type syntax is more extensible and adaptable for use in a changing environment. It helps to isolate the communication from the structure and content of the message, thereby reducing consequential change. This paper discusses the use of XML for the construction of agent-based messages, and presents a simple approach for the deconstruction of messages by receiving agents.