Levels of Adaptation in Systems of Coordinating Information Agents

Complex information environments, e.g. the Internet, are open systems. An open system is one in which the system components are not known in advance, can change over time, and may be highly heterogeneous. For example, the Internet can be viewed as a large, distributed information resource with heterogeneous nodes and communication links that could appear and disappear unpredictably. To face the challenges that open environments present, agent-based information systems must be multiagent and adaptive. We are developing a multiagent, reusable system infrastructure, RETSINA, that enables development of adaptive information systems. In this paper, we describe the different types and levels of adaptation in RETSINA, such as adaptation within an individual agent as well as inter-agent organization and coordination. We have used RETSINA to develop a variety of Internet-based applications.

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