A Mobile Agent Architecture for Courseware System

International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VII, Issue VII, July 2020 | ISSN 2321–2705

A Mobile Agent Architecture for Courseware System

Hameed M.A.¹, Ramoni T.A.¹, Fabiyi A.A.¹, Amosa B.M.G^2
1Department of Computer Science, Federal Polytechnic, Ede Nigeria
²Allbytes Research Group, Lagos Nigeria

Abstract: The cumbersomeness of tasks associated with the preparation of courseware system in our tertiary institutions is worrisome, that it takes a lot of man hours to design a good courseware system. Also many institutions face a lot of problems in managing their courseware system ranging from inability to generate a very effective course material that will be of high standard to a good delivery system. A system that will be effective in acquiring real-time update for respective courses on the courseware becomes imperative, hence a mobile agent architecture for courseware system. The system is developed using an open source database which is Mysql. Java programming language is used because it is the predominant language for mobile agent systems both for the implementation of mobile agent and for the development of mobile agent applications. The agent relies on the courseware database for its input. The system has been implemented in a network environment and tested by some selected lecturers who affirmed its robustness.

Keywords: Courseware, Architecture, Mobile, Agent, Tertiary

I. INTRODUCTION

Mobile agent is a programming model for developing complex applications because it is one the few technologies that is used to implement applications with special requirements such as huge data aggregation, distribution and pervasive computing. It is the technology that is used to design application with wide range of adaptive, flexibility, improved network and database possibilities [1]. A mobile agent is a program that is autonomous and can navigate through a heterogeneous network under its own ability, migrating from a host to host and interacting with other agents [2]. It is designed to make the decision of when and where to migrate and it can operate at any node or suspend its execution, move to another host and continue its execution on that host [3]. The features which differentiate them from other programs are autonomy, mobility, goal driven, temporarily continuous, intelligence etc. It has wide applications in computing which include reducing susceptibility to network disconnection, improvements in latency and bandwidth of client-server application.
Mobile agent application is used in areas such as industry, government, academics to drive telecommunication systems, e-commerce, robotics, mobile computing, grid computing and grid services, distributed data mining, service brokering, contract negotiation and computer simulation among others [4]. It is employed in many applications design because of its power to handle complex operation with the use of minimal resources [5].

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