On the modularity assessment of aspect-oriented multiagent architectures: a quantitative study

A number of concerns in Multiagent Systems (MAS) have a broadly-scoped impact on the system architectural decomposition, which in turn hinder the design of modular MAS architectures. Typical examples of crosscutting concerns in MAS architectures include learning, mobility, coordination, and autonomy. Nowadays there are some architectural proposals that envisage an emerging aspect-oriented architectural pattern as a potential solution to address modularity shortcomings of conventional architectural patterns for MAS designs. However, little effort has been dedicated to effectively assess when and which of these emerging and traditional architectural solutions promote in fact superior modularity in the presence of crosscutting MAS concerns. This paper presents a quantitative comparison between aspect-oriented and conventional MAS architectures. Our analysis evaluates how the architectures under comparison support the promotion of enhanced modularity in the presence of architectural crosscutting concerns in MAS design. Our evaluation used two medium-sized MAS applications and was centred on fundamental modularity attributes.