TRIAL MANUFACTURE OF SALES SUPPORTING SYSTEM USING MOBILE AGENT TECHNOLOGY
K Seki · Annual Conference on Computers · 2000
Researchers have developed a system for sales staff to access database systems that contain information on customers and travel plans through mobile terminals, such as a notebook personal computer, from their location. The system uses a Java-based mobile agent system, in that the login agent is first activated at the mobile terminal and moves to an authentication server with user ID and password information. When the authentication succeeds, the information retrieval agent is activated at the authentication server and moves to the mobile terminal. The information retrieval agent communicates with database management agents that reside at database servers, and retrieves the information on customers and travel plans for reservations. As the agent for the process moves to the mobile terminal from the server at the execution time, it is not necessary to upgrade the program of any mobile terminal. There is no data or program at the mobile terminal except the login agent, so the possibility of leaking information is low, even if the mobile terminal is lost or stolen. The agent can access multiple database systems with only one communication protocol because the differences between specifications of database systems are absorbed by database management agents. Researchers measured the quantity of transferred data and response time required for the agent to move. Although it takes a comparatively long time for the first retrieval because the agent has to move to the mobile terminal, it is still about 10-15 seconds at the transmission rate of approximately 28.8 kb/s, which is allowable for practical use. After the first retrieval, only data is transmitted, so the communication time is nearly equal to the time for data transmission.