Arantza Illarramendi

ANTARCTICA: A Multiagent System for Internet Data Services in a Wireless Computing Framework

Nowadays, the widespread use of wireless devices that can be connected to Internet allows users to access information from anywhere and at anytime. However, the management of Internet data services makes users of wireless devices face certain problems such as the inestability of the used media, the lack of suitability of existing services to the limited capabilities of some wireless devices (e.g., in the visualization of GUIs) and the high cost that their use implies. In this paper, we present the general features of ANTARCTICA, a system which provides users of wireless devices with a new environment to achieve their data management needs. The ANTARCTICA system is based on the use of proxies and agent technology and presents the following main features: 1) multiplicity, managing multiple data services, 2) scalability, allowing one to incorporate new services, 3) efficiency, optimizing wireless communications, 4) flexibility, supporting the mobility of users without restrictions, and 5) simplicity, making technical issues transparent to the users. We also report on the implementation of some services supported by ANTARCTICA and present experimental results associated to them.

A Software Retrieval Service Based on Knowledge-Driven Agents

The ability of retrieving and installing software in an easy and efficient way confers competitive advantage on computer users in general, and even more especially on mobile computer users. In this paper we present a software retrieval service that allows mobile users to select, retrieve and install software anywhere and at any time. This service makes use of agents that allow 1) a browsing of a software ontology automatically customized to different kind of users and user computers; 2) an efficient retrieval of the selected software; and 3) an automatic update of the available software ontology. A software obtaining process based on agents, that manage semantic descriptions of available software, presents a qualitative advance with respect to existing solutions where users must know the location and access method of various remote software repositories.