Cisco Systems collaborates with IIT-Roorkee on mobile agent research

Mumbai: Cisco Systems, the global leader in networking for the internet, today announced its collaboration with the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, for advanced research on mobile agent technology. As per the collaboration, Cisco will set up state of the art networking infrastructure to facilitate research and development on 'mobile agents' in the wide area network (WAN) and wireless environments. The infrastructure will also enable research in the area of mobile security in the delivery of mobile agents.

Mobile agent technology is an emerging paradigm that will lead to seamless information presentation, organisation and efficient retrieval from the Internet. It provides an intuitive and efficient platform for developing Internet applications in an open, distributed and heterogeneous environment.

According to Dr Kumkum Garg, professor of computing and head ISC-IIT at Roorkee, "Mobile Agents are increasingly being used across enterprises for applications such as meeting-scheduler and intrusion detection. A wider diffusion of the technology is currently limited by the lack of a comprehensive security framework. Cisco's networking infrastructure and its expertise in networking and security will allow us to extend the scope of our research and develop mobile agent technology and deliver its benefits beyond the LAN environment."

The Cisco networking infrastructure will allow students and faculty to conduct mobile agent research in Wide Area Network (WAN) and wireless settings, which will help improve the study environment for networking security protocols and architecture. Currently, these studies are being done in a Local Area Network (LAN) setting, which limits their applicability in networking research.

"Cisco has always been committed to the advancement of higher education and cutting edge research in India. Our collaboration with IIT Roorkee for the development of mobile agents technology is another step in this direction," said Jangoo Dalal, senior vice president, enterprise, Cisco Systems (India & SAARC).