Journal of ISMAC
IRO Journals
Volume 8 — Issue 1 — March 2026

Agent-Based Computing for Autonomic Networking: A Comprehensive Survey

https://doi.org/10.36548/jismac.2026.1.003
Pages: 40-64
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Ranganathan G.
Principal, Dhaanish Ahmed Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, India
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How to Cite

G., Ranganathan. 2026. “Agent-Based Computing for Autonomic Networking: A Comprehensive Survey”. Journal of ISMAC 8 (1): 40-64. https://doi.org/10.36548/jismac.2026.1.003.
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Keywords

— Autonomic Networking
— Agent-based Computing
— Multi-Agent Systems
— Self-Managing Networks
— Intelligent Network Control
Published: 16-03-2026

Abstract

The rapid growth of large-scale, heterogeneous, and highly dynamic networked systems has rendered traditional, manual, and centrally managed network control mechanisms less effective. Autonomic networking has been identified as an emerging technology that will allow networked systems to manage themselves through self-configuration, self-optimization, self-healing, and self-protection capabilities. The agent-based computing paradigm appears to be well suited to support autonomic networking through decentralized, adaptive, and intelligent decision-making capabilities. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of agent-based computing paradigms for autonomic networking, including existing architectures, models, and coordination paradigms. The survey of existing works will be categorized based on agent responsibilities, control paradigms, and learning capabilities. Additionally, the survey will provide a comparative analysis of existing architectural paradigms based on latency, scalability, coordination overhead, and convergence properties. Moreover, the paper will discuss the challenges and open issues of agent-based autonomic networking paradigms, including scalability, coordination overhead, security, and trustworthiness. Future research directions will be identified to develop fully autonomous networked systems.

 

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