Title: An agent-based architecture for fast context transfers during handoffs

Authors: Farhan Siddiqui, Sherali Zeadally

Addresses: Department of Computer Science, Wayne State University, Detroit, 48202 MI, USA. ' Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of the District of Columbia, Washington DC, USA

Abstract: Multimedia applications often involve multiple media types such as voice, text, video, and graphics. Many of these applications have low delay requirements and do not perform well under large delay conditions. To provide efficient support for mobile multimedia applications as well as seamless network connectivity, it is crucial that handoff delays are minimised. In this work, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of an architecture based on agent technology to minimise handoff delays. Our empirical results demonstrate that our proposed agent-based context transfer approach improves handoff delay performance by 54.8% compared to the traditional client/server context transfer approach which performs handoffs by exchanging multiple messages.

Keywords: handoff delays; mobile agents; MAS; multi-agent systems; agent-based systems; context transfer; mobile computing; wireless networks; mobile multimedia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAHUC.2008.018909

International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, 2008 Vol.3 No.4, pp.236 - 244

Published online: 22 Jun 2008 *

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