SAFER E-Commerce: Secure Agent Fabrication, Evolution & Roaming for E-Commerce

Abstract

As electronic commerce (e-commerce) booms, the demands for intelligent tools to streamline transactions are increasing. This motivates the development of the next generation of e-commerce, agent-based e-commerce. This chapter proposes a Secure Agent Fabrication, Evolution, & Roaming (SAFER) architecture for agent-based e-commerce. SAFER provides services for agents in e-commerce and establishes a rich set of mechanisms to manage and secure them. The definitions and functions of the various components in the SAFER architecture are elaborated. This chapter also illustrates three main aspects in the SAFER architecture: agent fabrication, agent evolution, and agent roaming.