Title: On the modularity assessment of aspect-oriented multiagent architectures: a quantitative study

Authors: Claudio Sant'Anna, Cidiane Lobato, Uira Kulesza, Alessandro Garcia, Christina Chavez, Carlos Lucena

Addresses: Computer Science Department, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rua Marques de Sao Vicente, 225, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, 22453–900, Brazil. ' Computer Science Department, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rua Marques de Sao Vicente, 225, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, 22453–900, Brazil. ' Computer Science Department, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rua Marques de Sao Vicente, 225, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, 22453–900, Brazil. ' Computing Department, Lancaster University, InfoLab21, South Drive, LA1 4WA, Lancaster, UK. ' Computer Science Department, Federal University of Bahia, Av. Adhemar de Barros, s/n, Salvador, BA, 40170–110, Brazil. ' Computer Science Department, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rua Marques de Sao Vicente, 225, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, 22453–900, Brazil

Abstract: A number of concerns in Multiagent Systems (MAS) have a broadly-scoped impact on the system architectural decomposition, which in turn hinder the design of modular MAS architectures. Typical examples of crosscutting concerns in MAS architectures include learning, mobility, coordination, and autonomy. Nowadays there are some architectural proposals that envisage an emerging aspect-oriented architectural pattern as a potential solution to address modularity shortcomings of conventional architectural patterns for MAS designs. However, little effort has been dedicated to effectively assess when and which of these emerging and traditional architectural solutions promote in fact superior modularity in the presence of crosscutting MAS concerns. This paper presents a quantitative comparison between aspect-oriented and conventional MAS architectures. Our analysis evaluates how the architectures under comparison support the promotion of enhanced modularity in the presence of architectural crosscutting concerns in MAS design. Our evaluation used two medium-sized MAS applications and was centred on fundamental modularity attributes.

Keywords: multi-agent systems; MAS design; software architecture evaluation; aspect-oriented architecture; software metrics; agent-based systems; modularity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAOSE.2008.016799

International Journal of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, 2008 Vol.2 No.1, pp.34 - 61

Published online: 23 Jan 2008 *

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