Abstract for Suhayya Abu-Hakima and Roger Impey Name: Suhayya Abu-Hakima Organization: NRC Canada E-mail: Go to the bio Name: Roger Impey Organization: NRC Canada E-mail: Go to the bio

------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seamless Personal Information Networking and Multi-Agent Systems Summary ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The vision of the Seamless Personal Information Networking (SPIN) Group is to research and develop personal computing and communication technologies to allow users to seamlessly interchange information in today's distributed workspaces how, when, where and if they want to. A personal distributed workspace includes a variety of applications such as voice mail, email, fax, electronic scheduling, etc. and a variety of end-user devices such as pagers, telephones (cellular or fixed public switched telephone network), desktops, wireless laptops, and personal digital assistants. SPIN is researching and developing multi-agent systems to allow users to mediate their complex workspaces and user interfaces in both Seamless Messaging and Network Management.

We have addressed the difficult problem of seamless messaging in heterogeneous communication environments and the design of cooperative agents to mediate workspaces. We have developed a system for for the seamless management of messages across distributed information networks. The aim of it is to intercept, filter, interpret, and deliver multi-modal messages be they voice, fax, and/or e-mail messages. Messages are delivered to the recipient regardless of their target messaging device be it a telephone, a pager, a desktop or a wireless phone. The system uses a set of personal agents that classify and act on incoming messages based on their content. A personal secretary agent routes urgent messages appropriately on a device that the user may be roaming or active on. What makes the system unique is its approach to treating a message in a universal manner, its ability to mediate between different messaging devices, and its ability to try to determine the availability of the user.

In Network Management we are researching and developing web-based tools that are compatible with Industry standards such as SNMP and HP OpenView. We are making use of mobile and static agents to monitor, diagnose, secure and ensure the quality of service in heteregeneous networks. These hybrid networks include wired and wireless LAN technology, a Personal Communication Systems (PCS) link, an ATM subnetwork and Photonics components. The complex problem of managing networks is compounded by the heteregeneity of the underlying protocols. The goal of our network management work is to address the user's ability to compute and communicate seamlessly over hybrid networks.

SPIN is collaborating with Industry and University leaders in telecommunications and computing technologies to achieve the group vision. We are a key R&D member of the Mobile Agents Alliance. We have set up the IIT Living Laboratory which is composed of a heterogeneous network to implement our technologies in a real-world environment. We believe our user-centric vision brings a unique focus to problems that have traditionally been addressed from a closed telco-centric view. As a result we are making use of the www as a key enabling technology for users aiming for seamless information networking.