An agent-based distributed multimedia service environment

This paper describes our experiences in using agent-based technology for the design of distributed multimedia service environments. These new systems must be able to operate in a constantly evolving enterprise and to adapt to unexpected contingencies or failures in hardware, software and even human resources. Our Multi-Agent-Architecture for Networked Applications (MANA) is based on the notion of an organizational network of agents that cooperate to provide services to internal and external customers of the enterprise. Key to the approach is the decoupling of service definition and provisioning through a declarative model of the enterprise