Multi-Agent System Orchestration: A Comprehensive Survey of Architectures and Applications

Abstract

The orchestration of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) has become an essential paradigm towards supporting scalable, collaborative, and intelligent problem-solving in complex settings through large language models (LLMs). In this study, a thorough survey of MAS architectures, orchestration mechanisms, communication protocols, and applications of multi-agent systems is given. It focuses on transitioning to multi-agent ecosystems coordinated by agents, which eliminate inefficiency, limited reasoning scope, and the inability to adjust. It addresses centralized, hierarchical and distributed MAS architecture, its significance, especially, orchestration in terms of task assignment, sequencing of workflow, monitoring and fault tolerance. Moreover, it discusses such important communication standards as Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocols, which permit the interoperability and well-organized cooperation between agents and other agents and systems. The survey also explains regarding applications in healthcare, industry and finance, stating how MAS orchestration is transformative. Finally, it determines the key concerns, such as scalability, governance, security, and interoperability, and outlines the new trends.