JADE (Java Agent DEvelopment Framework) is a software Framework fully implemented in the Java language. It simplifies the implementation of multi-agent systems through a middle-ware that complies with the FIPA specifications and through a set of graphical tools that support the debugging and deployment phases. A JADE-based system can be distributed across machines (which not even need to share the same OS) and the configuration can be controlled via a remote GUI. The configuration can be even changed at run-time by moving agents from one machine to another, as and when required. JADE is completely implemented in Java language and the minimal system requirement is the version 5 of JAVA (the run time environment or the JDK).
Besides the agent abstraction, JADE provides a simple yet powerful task execution and composition model, peer to peer agent communication based on the asynchronous message passing paradigm, a yellow pages service supporting publish subscribe discovery mechanism and many other advanced features that facilitates the development of a distributed system.
Thanks to the contribution of the LEAP project, ad hoc versions of JADE exist designed to deploy JADE agents transparently on different Java-oriented environments such as Android devices and J2ME-CLDC MIDP 1.0 devices.
Furthermore suitable configurations can be specified to run JADE agents in networks characterized by partial connectivity including NAT and firewalls as well as intermittent coverage and IP-address changes.
JADE is free software and is distributed by Telecom Italia, the copyright holder, in open source under the terms and conditions of the LGPL ( Lesser General Public License Version 2) license. Besides the JADE Team, however, a fairly large Community of developers gathered around the JADE Framework in these years. Anyone who is willing to contribute to this Community by reporting bugs, providing fixes and contributions or simply comments and suggestions, is more than welcome.
Telecom Italia acknowledges that this project is partially supported by the Italian M.I.U.R. through the Te.S.C.He.T. Project .
