Agent-based distributed computing for dynamic networks

Abstract

Dynamic networks of personal computers are characterized by sudden, unexpected failures of computational nodes, as well as the addition of new computers at any given moment. This paper presents a new agent-oriented system for distributed computing, named ADiS, specifically designed for operating in these kinds of environments. The system relies on the agent technology in order to adapt to dynamic changes in a computational net-work. Originally envisioned as a distributed system for distance matrix calculations, ADiS has recently been redesigned as a general-purpose, extensible architecture for arbitrary computing in a distributed environment. Experimental results demonstrate that the usage of ADiS has a significant positive impact onto the execution time of lengthy processes.