Mobile agent systems: What is missing?

Due to its salient properties, mobile agent technology has received a rapidly growing attention over the last few years. Many developments of mobile agent systems are underway in both academic and industrial environments. In addition, there are already various efforts to standardize mobile agent facilities and architectures. Nevertheless, mobile agent technology is in a fairly early state. In our opinion, a number of problems need to be solved before this technology is ready for commercial applications. In this paper, we will discuss the benefits of mobile agents based on a previously introduced taxonomy for mobility. Then we will indicate some areas, where more investigations are needed to add important features that are missing in today's systems.