Implementing Agent Communication for a Multi-agent Simulation Infrastructure on HLA

Multi-agent simulation is gaining popularity due to its intuitiveness and ability in coping with domain complexity. HLA, being a distributed simulation architecture standard, is a good candidate for implementing a multi-agent simulation infrastructure on, provided that agent communication can be implemented. In this paper, we present a layered approach to the agent communication, followed by a discussion of implementing the lowest two layers of this approach using HLA and the agent communication language KQML in the context of a multi-agent simulation.