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As the MASIF standard uses CORBA, the standard itself is defined as a set of IDL (Interface Definition Language) [CORBA] rules that have to be implemented by the Agent System. IDL rules are general interface specifications to be implemented by the CORBA enabled application. The IDL rules for the MASIF, the MAF (Mobile Agent Facility) modules, are divided into two parts: The MAFAgentSystem and the MAFFinder. The following section will give a rough overview about these two modules, as they are defined in the OMG document [MASIF98]. This was the latest public available version of this standard when the diploma thesis was started and the one used to create the TAgents Mobile Agent System.

The CfMAF IDL definition is not intended to describe how an Agent System handles the Agents internally or how an Agent has to be designed. It is intended to allow access to several kinds of different Agent Systems and to the MAFFinder through a known interface and the use of CORBA. This could be used to administrate different Agent Systems or to use the more indicated Agent System to process certain tasks and start there the appropriate Agent. This citation of the OMG provides the best description of the main goal of the MASIF standard:

An important goal in mobile agent technology is interoperability between various manufacturer`s agent systems. Interoperability becomes more achievable if actions such as agent transfer, class transfer, and agent management are standardized. When the source and destination agent systems are similar, standardization of these actions can result in interoperability. However, when the two agent systems are dramatically different, only minimal interoperability can be achieved.[MASIF98, page 6]