Monday, April 27, 2009

INTELLIGENT AGENTS FOR INFORMATION SYSTEM OPERATIONS

This paper discusses new information operations concepts related to the use of intelligent agents. The basic agent concept involves dispatching a group of processes across a network to service a user’s request at remote locations and to return selected results. With the growth of high bandwidth backbones, networks, and the expanded use of mobile computing, agents fill an essential niche as extensions of the user.

Agents assist users in coping with the ever-increasing extent of information available from a host of heterogeneous sources including the internet. Agents operate autonomously, have rules that constrain their operations, and are reactive to changes they detect in their environment. Advanced agents interact and collaborate with other agents and learn from their experiences. Other advances include increasingly sophisticated abilities to adapt their behavior. In networked environments, agents can be mobile to seek the information they need or to follow their user. For mobile users who only connect to a network periodically, the intelligent agent can act as a surrogate representative. Agent technology depends on the use of standards and technologies to support requested services.

In this thesis, 21st century aspects of this technology are discussed, including concepts for information acquisition, protection, processing, transport, and management.

Susan K. Cerovsky-Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy
B.S., University of South Alabama, 1984
Master of Science in Information Technology Management-June 2000
and
Evan A. Hipsley, Jr.-Lieutenant, United States Navy
B.S., Old Dominion University, 1993
Master of Science in Information Technology Management-June 2000

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