Evaluation of Java Messaging Middleware as a Platform for Software Agent Communication

In this document we introduce an infrastructure for personal agent communication and coordination. An essential part is the so called Agent Bus, built on top of existing messaging systems that allow flexible communication between agents. We show how messaging differs from other communication mechanisms and describe our evaluation of several Java messaging systems like JMS, Corba Event and Notification Service or Softwired’s iBus with respect to functionality and performance. We also describe the special requirements of agent communication and the design and performance of our Agent Bus.