Parallel and distributed algorithms in P systems

Abstract

Our group's recent quest has been to use P systems to model parallel and distributed algorithms. Several framework extensions are recalled or detailed, in particular, modular composition with information hiding, complex symbols, generic rules, reified cell IDs, asynchronous operational modes, asynchronous complexity. We motivate our proposals via P system models of several well-known distributed algorithms, such as leader election and distributed echo. As another type of application, we mention a dynamic programming algorithm for stereo matching in image processing. We suggest criteria to assess the merits of this modelling approach and offer preliminary evaluations of our proposed additional ingredients, which have been useful in refactoring existing systems and could be useful to the larger P systems community. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.