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KQML is a communication language and protocol that enables autonomous and asynchronous software agents to share their knowledge and work towards cooperative problem solving. Developed as a part of the DARPA {Knowledge Sharing Effort}, KQML can be thought of as consisting of three layers: the content layer, the message layer, and the communication layer. The content layer bears the actual content of the message, in the program's own representation language. The communication level encodes a set of message features which describe the lower level communication parameters, such as the identity of the sender and recipient, and a unique identifier associated with the communication. The message layer forms the core of the KQML language, and determines the kinds of interactions one can have with a KQML--speaking agent. A primary function of the message layer is to identify the protocol to be used to deliver the message and to supply a speech act or performative which the sender attaches to the content (such as that it is an assertion, a query, a command, or any of a set of known performatives).
Preliminary steps toward adding security features to KQML have been carried out by Finin, Mayfield, and Thirunavukkarasu. We will begin by critically evaluating and expanding these preliminary designs. Our eventual goal is to implement these designs and to demonstrate their effectiveness in agent-based applications in electronic commerce. The project will benefit from the collaboration of Finin (an expert in intelligent agents) and Sherman (an expert in cryptography).
Our approach integrates smoothly with promising contemporary approaches to models of distributed trust, such as those proposed by Rivest and Lampson, and Blaze, Feigenbaum, and Lacy.