# Agents

*Agents* are additional components of Connectware that can be deployed and started individually, usually somewhere *outside* of the central Connectware installation.

Agents are the solution to the requirement for “computing on the edge”. They allow data-processing at a very early stage of the pipeline and will secure non-secure hardware communication protocols right at the machine. Additionally, agents can be used to partition workloads of protocol translations, preprocessing, or data forwarding across multiple container instances.

For agents to work only a single pre-condition must be met: agents must be in a network that allows them to connect to the (central) Connectware instance.

{% hint style="warning" %}
Agents solely use MQTT for communication and hence act as network clients. They do not require any inbound traffic and no special network configuration for inbound connectivity is needed.
{% endhint %}

This page describes how to run individual agent instances outside of the central Connectware, although any of those deployment possibilities can also be applied inside the central Connectware as well. Both is possible. The following documentation will focus on the docker-based agent setup.


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