FIPA 97 Frequently Asked Questions

For on-line version see http://www.cselt.it/fipa

Message Transport

Q2.  Does FIPA97 mean that the only communications protocol I can use between agents is IIOP?
A2.  No. Firstly there are two types of message transport, the internal message transport which delivers messages between agents on the same platfrom and and the inter platfrom message transport which delivers message between  agents on different platforms. You must support IIOP only in the case of the inter platform message transport. Secondly the inter platfrom message transport can support any number of protocols and agents can comminicate using any of  these protocols as long as they both agree  on this protocol.

Q3. Does FIPA97 mean that I have to interact with IIOP?
A3.  No. There are a number of free CORBA II implementations available which support IIOP. If you use one of these then IIOP is hidden from you.

Q4.  Do I have to distribute the IOR of my object platform in some way?
A4. No. Current work in the OMG addresses this issue. It is envisaged that in the future many CORBA 2 implementations will allow an IOR to be constructed from other information e.g. a URL. Other agent platforms can use this feature to contact your platform as long as your URL is known.
 
 

ACL

Q5.  What is the relationship between ACL, Content Language and Ontology?
A5.  Terms from an Ontology can be combined within a suitable content language in order to construct sentences which are meaningful in the application domain. These content sentences are contained within ACL.

Q6.  Is SL the only content language I can use?
A6.  No. Although FIPA97 mandates the use of SL for certain normative operations, the application developer is free to use any suitable content language.  For example,KIF may be appropriate for many applications.