Abstract:
We present MAGICS, a mobile agent-based system
for supporting business-to-consumer electronic commerce (ecommerce)
or mobile commerce (m-commerce) applications. To
use the system, consumers first provide their buying requirements
to a proxy/agent server through a Web browser or a wireless application
protocol (WAP) terminal. Having obtained the requirements,
mobile agents are generated to carry out tasks for the consumers
including getting offers from merchants, evaluating offers,
and even completing purchases. In the case of mobile commerce,
consumers can generate a mobile agent to conduct a search and
evaluation in the digital marketspace before making a purchase
in the physical marketplace. To make it possible to choose an offer
that best satisfies the consumer’s requirement(s), we present
a mathematical model for evaluating multiple decision factors. To
test the basic functions of the mobile agent-based Internet commerce
system (MAGICS), we have built a prototype system. To
minimize the average cost of a product (including the cost of sending
agents), we have also developed an analytical model that can
determine how many agents should be sent to compare prices.
Four different price distributions and some real price information
are analyzed based on the model. The analysis provides valuable
insights into the design of mobile agent-based shopping applications
for m-commerce, in particular, and for e-commerce, in
general.
