Agent technology has recently become one of the most vibrant and fastest growing areas in information technology. And advanced digital communicatiion is a central enabling technology for the coming information society. So software agents and their exploitation for future communication systems are attracting particular attention from the research and development community as well as from economic and user communities interested in everyday private and professional digital communication applications. This monograph-like anthology is the first systematic introduction to software agents and future communication systems. Fifteen coherently written chapters by leading software agent researchers provide complementary coverage of the relevant issues. Multi-agent systems and mobile agent approaches are presented in a well-balanced way and applied to most important topics in future communication systems. In addition, the volume editors have provided a detailed introductory survey chapters.