Magentix a MultiAGENT platform integrated in LINUX is a Multiagent Platform developed in the C programming language on Linux. It offers the main support for developing Multiagent Systems (MAS). Magentix does not need any middleware between the Operating System (OS) and the Multiagent Platform. Features like scalability and performance are key issues taken into account in the design of this Multiagent Platform.
Magentix is composed by several hosts running Linux. The platform structure in a single host can be seen like a hierachical structure of Linux processes. Each host that is part of the platform runs a magentix process and several services represented as processes that are child processes of magentix.Some services are provided to offer suport to development of MAS.
The services already implemented are the AMS (Agent Management System), the DF (Directory Facilitator) and the MTS (Message Transport System). AMS and DF services are represented as OS processes running on each host of the platform. The processes of the same service coordinate and share information using replication techniques.
The AMS service offers the white pages funcionality. It stores complete information concerning every agent running on the platform like the name, the owner, the address contact, etc. This information is replicated in each host of the platform by means of processes. Every agent in Magentix is represented as Linux process, being child process of the AMS process running on its same host.
The DF offers the yellow pages service, storing the services offered by the agents running on the platform. It is represented as df distributed processes that replicates their information.
The MTS implements the communication of the platorm agents. Its desing is optimized to offer a fast communication between the agents. Each pair of agents communicates itself using P2P connections by means of TCP sockets managed using connection tables in order to optimize OS resources usage. A message structure is defined according the specifications defined by FIPA.
