The Grasshopper Mobile Agent Platform Enabling Shortterm Active Broadband Intelligent Network Implementation

The emerging notion of Active Networks describes the general vision of communication network evolution. In this context mobile agent (MA) technology and programmable switches are considered as enabling technologies. This paper presents an overview of the Grasshopper agent platform, developed by GMD FOKUS and IKV++ GmbH, which provides a powerful middleware for the implementation of MA-based telecommunication services, including active network applications. Apart from a general overview of the Grasshopper platform, we will briefly illustrate the usage of this platform for the short-term implementation of an Active Broadband Intelligent Network environment, which is currently realised within the ACTS project MARINE (Mobile Agent-based Intelligent Network Environment).