An agent-based approach for quality of service negotiation and management in distributed multimedia systems -- Exploiting code mobility in decentralized and flexible network management -- Java-based mobile agents — How to migrate, persist, and interact on electronic service markets -- Mobile code paradigms and technologies: A case study -- The architecture of the ara platform for mobile agents -- A multi-agent architecture supporting services access -- Contracting and moving agents in distributed applications based on a service-oriented architecture -- Concordia: An infrastructure for collaborating mobile agents -- The OMG mobile agent facility: A submission -- Mobile agents — Smart messages -- Communication concepts for mobile agent systems -- Mobile agent interaction in heterogeneous environments -- Strategically mobile agents -- A novel mobile Agent search algorithm -- Insisting on persistent mobile agent systems -- Open resource allocation for mobile code -- A distributed transaction model based on mobile agents -- A toolset for architecture independent, reconfigurable, multi-agent systems.

This book presents the refereed proceedings of the First International Conference on Mobile Agents, MA '97, held in Berlin, Germany, in April 1997. Mobile Agents offer unique opportunities for structuring and implementing distributed systems. A wide range of applications has been identified for mobile agent technology, including electronic commerce, telecommunication services, network management, group work, and workflow management. The 18 revised full papers presented in the volume were selected out of a total of 34 submissions; all in all they reflect the state of the art in the exciting area of mobile agent technology.