A-GATE: a system of relay and translation gateways for communication among heterogeneous agents in ad hoc wireless environments

The devices in an ad hoc network are expected to perform network functionalities by themselves due to the absence of proper networking infrastructure. Generally the routing is multi-hop as nodes may not be within the wireless transmission range of each other. This paper describes a system named A-GATE to support the high-level communication needs of agents in such a network. Agents are used to support the interoperability among devices and the system is capable of handling heterogeneity in agent platforms. A-GATE proposes a novel routing mechanism for locating the intended recipient of a message. The system aims to be self-organizing and self-configuring to suit the dynamic nature of ad hoc networks.