A Multi-Agent Message Transfer Architecture based on the Messaging Middleware ZeroMQ

摘要

This paper suggests a multi-agent message transport architecture based on the message-oriented middleware ZeroMQ. Compared with the other middlewares such as CORBA, Ice, and Thrift, ZeroMQ receives a good score in the evaluation of performance, QoS (Quality of Service), patterns, user friendliness, and resources. The suggested message transfer architecture borrowed many basic concepts like agent platform, AMS (Agent Management System), and MTS (Message Transfer System) from FIPA (Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents) standard multi-agent specifications, and the architecture inherited the strength of the architecture from the multi-agent framework SMAF (Smart Multi-Agent Framework). The architecture suggested in this paper is a novel peer-to-peer architecture which is not known to the ZeroMQ community. In the suggested architecture, every MTS agent uses only one ZeroMQ router socket to support peer-to-peer communication among MTS agents. The suggested architecture can support closely collaborating software areas such as intelligent robots as well as the traditional application areas of multi-agent architecture. The suggested architecture has interoperability and scalability with the ZeroMQ devices and patterns.