FOUNDATION FOR INTELLIGENT
PHYSICAL AGENTS
FIPA Nomadic Application Support
Control Agent Specification
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Document title |
FIPA Nomadic Application Support Control Agent Specification |
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Document number |
OC00063C |
Document source |
FIPA Nomadic Application Support |
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Document status |
Obsolete |
Date of this status |
2000/08/04 |
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Supersedes |
None |
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Contact |
fab@fipa.org |
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Change history |
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2000/08/04 |
Document made obsolete by FIPA00014 |
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İ 2000 Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents - http://www.fipa.org/
Geneva, Switzerland
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Notice |
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Use of the technologies described in this specification may infringe
patents, copyrights or other intellectual property rights of FIPA Members and
non-members. Nothing in this specification should be construed as granting permission
to use any of the technologies described. Anyone planning to make use of
technology covered by the intellectual property rights of others should first
obtain permission from the holder(s) of the rights. FIPA strongly encourages
anyone implementing any part of this
specification to determine first whether part(s) sought to be implemented are
covered by the intellectual property of others, and, if so, to obtain
appropriate licenses or other permission from the holder(s) of such
intellectual property prior to implementation. This specification is subject
to change without notice. Neither FIPA nor any of its Members accept any
responsibility whatsoever for damages or liability, direct or consequential,
which may result from the use of this specification. |
Foreword
The Foundation for Intelligent
Physical Agents (FIPA) is an international organization that is dedicated to
promoting the industry of intelligent agents by openly developing
specifications supporting interoperability among agents and agent-based
applications. This occurs through open collaboration among its member
organizations, which are companies and universities that are active in the
field of agents. FIPA makes the results of its activities available to all
interested parties and intends to contribute its results to the appropriate
formal standards bodies.
The members of FIPA are individually
and collectively committed to open competition in the development of
agent-based applications, services and equipment. Membership in FIPA is open to
any corporation and individual firm, partnership, governmental body or
international organization without restriction. In particular, members are not
bound to implement or use specific agent-based standards, recommendations and
FIPA specifications by virtue of their participation in FIPA.
The FIPA specifications are
developed through direct involvement of the FIPA membership. The status of a
specification can be either Preliminary, Experimental, Standard, Deprecated or
Obsolete. More detail about the process
of specification may be found in the FIPA Procedures for Technical Work. A
complete overview of the FIPA specifications and their current status may be
found in the FIPA List of Specifications. A list of terms and abbreviations
used in the FIPA specifications may be found in the FIPA Glossary.
FIPA is a non-profit association
registered in Geneva, Switzerland. As of January 2000, the 56 members of FIPA
represented 17 countries worldwide.
Further information about FIPA as an organization, membership information, FIPA
specifications and upcoming meetings may be found at http://www.fipa.org/.
Contents
2.2.1 Open Communication
Channel
2.2.2 Close
Communication Channel
2.2.3 Activate a Message
Transport Protocol
2.2.4 Deactivate a
Message Transport Protocol
2.2.5 Select a Message
Transport Protocol
This document is part of the FIPA specifications and deals with agent middleware to support applications in nomadic environment. This specification also forms part of the FIPA Nomadic Application Support Specification [FIPA00066] and contains specifications for:
· Control Agent (CA) functionality.
This section describes a set of frames, that represent the classes of objects in the domain of discourse within the framework of the FIPA-Nomadic-Application ontology.
The following terms are used to describe the objects of the domain:
· Frame. This is the mandatory name of this entity, that must be used to represent each instance of this class.
· Ontology. This is the name of the ontology, whose domain of discourse includes the parameters described in the table.
· Parameter. This is the mandatory name of a parameter of this frame.
· Description. This is a natural language description of the semantics of each parameter.
· Presence. This indicates whether each parameter is mandatory or optional.
· Type. This is the type of the values of the parameter: Integer, Word, String, URL, Term, Set or Sequence.
· Reserved Values. This is a list of FIPA-defined constants that can assume values for this parameter.
This type of object represents the description of each service registered with the DF.
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Frame Ontology |
service-description FIPA-Nomadic-Application |
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Parameter |
Description |
Presence |
Type |
Reserved
Values |
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name |
The name of the service. |
Mandatory |
String |
fipa-mts-control |
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type |
The type of the service. |
Mandatory |
String |
fipa-ca |
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ontology |
A list of ontologies supported by the service. |
Optional |
Set of String |
FIPA-Nomadic-Application |
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protocol |
A list of interaction protocols supported by the service. |
Optional |
Set of String |
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properties |
A list of properties that discriminate the service. |
Optional |
Set of property |
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The
following tables define usage and semantics of the functions that are part of
the FIPA-Nomadic-Application ontology.
The following terms are used to describe the functions of the FIPA-Nomadic-Application domain:
· Function. This is the symbol that identifies the function in the ontology.
· Ontology. This is the name of the ontology, whose domain of discourse includes the function described in the table.
· Supported by. This is the type of agent that supports this function.
· Description. This is a natural language description of the semantics of the function.
· Domain. This indicates the domain over which the function is defined. The arguments passed to the function must belong to the set identified by the domain.
· Range. This indicates the range to which the function maps the symbols of the domain. The result of the function is a symbol belonging to the set identified by the range.
· Arity. This indicates the number of arguments that a function takes. If a function can take an arbitrary number of arguments, then its arity is undefined.
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Function |
open-comm-channel |
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Ontology |
FIPA-Nomadic-Application |
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Supported by |
CA |
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Description |
An agent can request that a CA opens a
communication channel. The communication channel description should contain
enough information for a CA to be able to choose the right communication
channel, that is, either the :name parameter or the :target-addr parameter must be present. The agent may also supply additional
communication channel information by using the :options parameter. |
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Domain |
comm-channel (see [FIPA00065]) |
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Range |
The execution of this function results in
a change of the state, but it has no explicit result. Therefore there is no
range set. |
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Arity |
1 |
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Function |
close-comm-channel |
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Ontology |
FIPA-Nomadic-Application |
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Supported by |
CA |
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Description |
An agent can request that a CA closes a
communication channel. The communication channel description should contain
enough information for a CA to be able to choose the right communication
channel, that is, either the :name parameter or the :target-addr parameter must be present. |
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Domain |
comm-channel |
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Range |
The execution of this function results in
a change of the state, but it has no explicit result. Therefore there is no
range set. |
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Arity |
1 |
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Function |
activate |
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Ontology |
FIPA-Nomadic-Application |
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Supported by |
CA |
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Description |
An agent can request that a CA activates
a Message Transport Protocol (MTP). The transport protocol description should
contain enough information to allow the CA to identify the correct transport
protocol. Additionally, the agent may supply address information to where the
transport protocol connection should be opened. It is possible to give the
address of the gateway and/or the address of the destination AP. |
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Domain |
Sequence of transport-protocol (see
[FIPA00065]) |
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Range |
transport-protocol |
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Arity |
1 |
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Function |
deactivate |
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Ontology |
FIPA-Nomadic-Application |
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Supported by |
CA |
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Description |
An agent can request that a CA
deactivates an MTP. |
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Domain |
transport-protocol |
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Range |
The execution of this function results in
a change of the state, but it has no explicit result. Therefore there is no
range set. |
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Arity |
1 |
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Function |
use |
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Ontology |
FIPA-Nomadic-Application |
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Supported by |
CA |
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Description |
An CA can request another CA to select an
MTP for use between Agent Communication Channels (ACCs) using the FIPA-Propose
interaction protocol (see [FIPA00036]). The requesting CA shall provide
enough information to establish a working MTP connection. The direction of
communication (either send, receive or both) and the list of MTPs must be present.
The list of MTPs is an ordered list where the highest priority is the first
item and the lowest priority is the last item in the list. The receiving CA
shall select at most one MTP for the proposed direction of communication
(either send, receive or both) |
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Domain |
transports (see [FIPA00065]) |
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Range |
transports |
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Arity |
1 |
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1. A CA registers with a DF (see [FIPA00023]):
(request
:sender
(agent-identifier
:name ca@foo.com
:addresses (sequence http://foo.com/acc))
:receiver (set
(agent-identifier
:name df@foo.com
:addresses (sequence http://foo.com/acc)))
:language FIPA-SL0
:protocol FIPA-Request
:ontology FIPA-Agent-Management
:content
(action
(agent-identifier
:name df@foo.com
:addresses
(sequence http://foo.com/acc))
(register
(df-agent-description
:name
(agent-identifier
:name ca@foo.com
:addresses (sequence http://foo.com/acc))
:services (set
(service-description
:name fipa-mts-control
:type fipa-ca
:ontology (set FIPA-Nomadic-Application))))))))
2. An agent asks a CA to open a communication channel:
(request
:sender
(agent-identifier
:name agent@foo.com
:addresses (sequence
http://foo.com/acc))
:receiver (set
(agent-identifier
:name ca@mobile.com
:addresses (sequence
http://mobile.com/acc)))
:language FIPA-SL0
:ontology FIPA-Nomadic-Application
:protocol FIPA-Request
:content
(action
(agent-identifier
:name ca@mobile.com
:addresses (sequence
http://mobile.com/acc))
(open-comm-channel
(comm-channnel
:name GPRS
:target-addr
wap://wap-gateway.com:1234/acc))))
3. An agent asks a CA to close a communication channel:
(request
:sender
(agent-identifier
:name agent@foo.com
:addresses (sequence
http://foo.com/acc))
:receiver
(set
(agent-identifier
:name ca@bar.com
:addresses (sequence
http://bar.com/acc)))
:language FIPA-SL0
:ontology FIPA-Nomadic-Application
:protocol FIPA-Request
:content
(action
(agent-identifier
:name ca@bar.com
:addresses (sequence
http://bar.com/acc))
(close-comm-channel
(comm-channnel
:target-addr
wap://wap-gateway.com:1234/acc))))
4. An agent asks a CA to activate an MTP:
(request
:sender
(agent-identifier
:name agent@foo.com
:addresses (sequence
http://foo.com/acc))
:receiver (set
(agent-identifier
:name ca@bar.com
:addresses (sequence
http://bar.com/acc)))
:language FIPA-SL0
:ontology FIPA-Nomadic-Application
:protocol FIPA-Request
:content
(action
(agent-identifier
:name ca@bar.com
:addresses (sequence http://bar.com/acc))
(activate (sequence
(transport-protocol
:name fipa.mts.mtp.wap.std
:gw-addr
wap://wap-gateway.com:1234/acc)))))
5. An agent asks a CA to deactivate an MTP:
(request
:sender
(agent-identifier
:name agent@foo.com
:addresses (sequence
http://foo.com/acc))
:receiver (set
(agent-identifier
:name ca@bar.com
:addresses (sequence
http://bar.com/acc)))
:language FIPA-SL0
:ontology FIPA-Nomadic-Application
:protocol FIPA-Request
:content
(action
(agent-identifier
:name ca@bar.com
:addresses (sequence
http://bar.com/acc))
(deactivate
(transport-protocol
:name fipa.mts.mtp.wap.std
:gw-addr
wap://wap-gateway.com:1234/acc))))
6. A CA asks another CA to use one of the specified MTPs as the communication mechanism between ACCs:
(request
:sender
(agent-identifier
:name ca@foo.com
:addresses (sequence http://foo.com/))
:receiver (set
(agent-identifier
:name ca@bar.com
:addresses (sequence http://bar.com/)))
:language FIPA-SL0
:ontology FIPA-Nomadic-Application
:protocol FIPA-Propose
:content
(action
(agent-identifier
:name ca@bar.com
:addresses (sequence http://bar.com/))
(use
(transports
:send (sequence
(transport-protocol
:name fipa.mts.mtp.wap.std)
(transport-protocol
:name x-uh-mdcp))
:recv (sequence
(transport-protocol
:name fipa.mts.mtp.wap.std)
(transport-protocol
:name x-uh-mdcp))))))
[FIPA00023] FIPA Agent
Management Specification. Foundation for Intelligent
Physical Agents, 2000. http://www.fipa.org/specs/fipa00023/
[FIPA00036] FIPA Propose
Interaction Protocol Specification. Foundation for
Intelligent Physical Agents, 2000. http://www.fipa.org/specs/fipa00036/
[FIPA00066] FIPA Nomadic
Application Support Specification. Foundation for
Intelligent Physical Agents, 2000. http://www.fipa.org/specs/fipa00066/
[FIPA00076] FIPA Agent Message Transport Protocol for
WAP Specification. Foundation for Intelligent
Physical Agents, 2000.
http://www.fipa.org/specs/fipa00076/