@mastersthesis{sundaram:thesis,
    author = {Shankar Sundaram},
    title = {Mission-Flow Constructor: A Workflow Management System Using Mobile
Agents},
    year = {2000},
    month = {May},
    school = {Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College},
    copyright = {Shankar Sundaram},
    address = {Hanover, New Hampshire},
    group = {agents, actcomm, coabs},
    url = {http://agent.cs.dartmouth.edu/papers/sundaram:thesis.ps.gz},
    abstract = {Developing code for the execution of a distributed, dynamic
workflow requires significant effort and hence it becomes necessary to build
tools that enable the creation and execution of such workflows. Compelling
arguments have been made for the implementation of workflow management
systems using mobile agents. Mobile agents are autonomous pieces of code that
can migrate under their own control from one machine to another within a
heterogeneous network. Mission-flow Constructor (MfC) is a workflow
management system built on the D'Agents mobile agent system. Like its
predecessor Mobile Agent Construction Environment (MACE), MfC uses the
concept of visual languages and further abstracts the process of building a
workflow. Agents generated by MfC are small and migrate only once. These
agents hence make more optimal use of network resources than those generated
by MACE. MfC generated agents also use improved communication means and
incorporate some basic fault tolerance mechanisms. A set of primitive
constructs that encapsulate commonly used topologies has been defined to make
easier the process of workflow definition. A workflow specified using the GUI
and associated annotation process is compiled to a set of D'Agents agents by
making use of the visual depiction and the code fragments that define the
individual modules. MfC then launches these agents to execute the various
tasks associated with the workflow specified by the user.}
}