Affiliations: [a] Department of Information Systems, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Wrocław, Poland
| [b] Nova-System Filip Nowakowski, Wrocław, Poland
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author. Dariusz Król, Department of Information Systems, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Wyb. Wyspiańskiego 27, 50-370 Wrocław, Poland. Tel.: +48 71 320 3258; Fax: +48 71 320 3884; E-mail: dariusz.krol@pwr.edu.pl.
Abstract: This paper assesses the possibility of using a popular middleware platform based on a multiple agent paradigm in full compliance with Real Time Specifications for Java. Two reference scenarios are discussed: one testing thread-to-thread activation (creating and releasing threads), the other featuring agent-to-agent execution for road traffic simulation (creating and releasing agents). These preemptive tasks must be scheduled with minimum delay, therefore, timing correctness as thread-to-thread activation latency and agent-to-agent execution latency is a critical performance index. Given this requirement, the study presented describes an empirical investigation of timing and capacity impact on two platforms: Solaris and Windows in both RT and non-RT versions. The experiments showed the impact on performance of platform type and of capacity with the non-RT approach in particular yielding less accuracy but better stability in agent execution. Suggestions as to how this real-time multi-agent approach might be made more effective are included in the paper.
