| Adaptability for Seamless Roaming Using Software Agents |
Provision of seamless roaming between different administrative domains is a challenging task even when the underlying network technology remains the same. When predictions reliable enough are available, then the negotiation between the domains can be started early enough so that authentication and admission control are already done before the need of handover. To provide seamless roaming even in the looser form between different technologies is much more challenging. In this case the applications need to adapt their behavior to the available QoS of communications resources.
In this paper we have described how software agents can be used to provide infrastructure services so that applications have time to adjust their behavior to the forthcoming changes in QoS. Although our research is still in an early stage, the results are encouraging. Modeling user behavior and available QoS separately enables predictions of reasonable accuracy. In this approach, the models are also quite small and simple. However, a lot of research is still needed in refining various models and in combining various predictions. For small devices, the distribution of functionality between terminal devices, networks elements and application servers is an important issue.