Communicative acts and interaction protocols in a distributed information system

ABSTRACT

In FIPA-style multi-agent systems, agents coordinate their activities by sending messages representing particular communicative acts (or performatives). Agent communication languages must strike a balance between simplicity and expressiveness by defining a limited set of communicative act types that fit the communication needs of a wide set of problems. More complex requirements for particular problems must then be handled by defining domain-specific predicates and actions within ontologies. This paper examines the communication needs of a multi-agent distributed information retrieval system and discusses how well these are met by the FIPA ACL.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
        I.2.11 Distributed Artificial Intelligence
            Subjects: Multiagent systems

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.4 Distributed Systems
          Subjects: Distributed applications; Distributed databases

  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.4 Systems and Software
          Subjects: Distributed systems

General Terms:
Design

Keywords:
FIPA, NZDIS, communicative acts, information agents, interaction protocols, multi-agent systems, software agents