Current workflow management systems usually adopt the existing technologies such as TCP/IP-based Web technologies and CORBA as well to fulfill the bottom communications. Very often it has been considered only from a t...Current workflow management systems usually adopt the existing technologies such as TCP/IP-based Web technologies and CORBA as well to fulfill the bottom communications. Very often it has been considered only from a theoretical point of view, mainly for the lack of concrete possibilities to execute with elasticity. MAT (Mobile Agent Technology) represents a very attractive approach to the distributed control of computer networks and a valid alternative to the implementation of strategies for workflow system. This paper mainly focuses on improving the performance of workflow system by using MAT. Firstly, the performances of workflow systems based on both CORBA and mobile agent are summarized and analyzed; Secondly, the performance contrast is presented by introducing the mathematic model of each kind of data interaction process respectively. Last, a mobile agentbased workflow system named MAWMS is presented and described in detail. Key words workflow - Mobile Agent - Contract Net Protocol - CORBA - Web CLC number TP 393 Foundation item: Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (60272024) and National Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province (0411014100)Biography: LI Jie, (1975-), male, lector, Ph. D., research direction: workflow, mobile agent, network management.展开更多
文摘Current workflow management systems usually adopt the existing technologies such as TCP/IP-based Web technologies and CORBA as well to fulfill the bottom communications. Very often it has been considered only from a theoretical point of view, mainly for the lack of concrete possibilities to execute with elasticity. MAT (Mobile Agent Technology) represents a very attractive approach to the distributed control of computer networks and a valid alternative to the implementation of strategies for workflow system. This paper mainly focuses on improving the performance of workflow system by using MAT. Firstly, the performances of workflow systems based on both CORBA and mobile agent are summarized and analyzed; Secondly, the performance contrast is presented by introducing the mathematic model of each kind of data interaction process respectively. Last, a mobile agentbased workflow system named MAWMS is presented and described in detail. Key words workflow - Mobile Agent - Contract Net Protocol - CORBA - Web CLC number TP 393 Foundation item: Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (60272024) and National Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province (0411014100)Biography: LI Jie, (1975-), male, lector, Ph. D., research direction: workflow, mobile agent, network management.