A survey of agent interoperability protocols: Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent Communication Protocol (ACP), Agent-to-Agent Protocol (A2A), and Agent Network Protocol (ANP)

Large language model (LLM)-powered autonomous agents demand robust, standardized protocols to integrate tools, share contextual data, and coordinate tasks across heterogeneous systems. Ad-hoc integrations are difficult to scale, secure, and generalize across domains. This survey examines four emerging agent communication protocols: Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent Communication Protocol (ACP), Agent-to-Agent Protocol (A2A), and Agent Network Protocol (ANP), each addressing interoperability in distinct deployment contexts. MCP provides a JSON-RPC client-server interface for secure tool invocation and typed data exchange. ACP introduces REST-native messaging via multi-part messages and asynchronous streaming to support multimodal agent responses. A2A enables peer-to-peer task outsourcing through capability-based Agent Cards, facilitating enterprise-scale workflows. ANP supports open-network agent discovery and secure collaboration using decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and JSON-LD graphs. The protocols are compared across multiple dimensions, including interaction modes, discovery mechanisms, communication patterns, and security models. Based on the comparative analysis, a phased adoption roadmap is proposed: beginning with MCP for tool access, followed by ACP for multimodal messaging, A2A for collaborative task execution, and extending to ANP for decentralized agent marketplaces. This work provides a comprehensive foundation for designing secure, interoperable, and scalable ecosystems of LLM-powered agents.

@article{ehtesham2025_2505.02279,
  title={ A survey of agent interoperability protocols: Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent Communication Protocol (ACP), Agent-to-Agent Protocol (A2A), and Agent Network Protocol (ANP) },
  author={ Abul Ehtesham and Aditi Singh and Gaurav Kumar Gupta and Saket Kumar },
  journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.02279},
  year={ 2025 }
}