Mobility and computations: Some open research directions (abstract)

Abstract

Distributed computing is the study of the computational and complexity issues arising in systems of autonomous computational entities interacting with each other (e.g., to solve a problem, to perform a task). The focus is on the autonomy of the entities (i.e., absence of control(lers) external to the system) and decentralization (i.e., absence of pre-defined controllers within the system). Traditionally the entities have been assumed to be stationary. However, there is a large and varied class of distributed environments where the interacting entities, autonomous and decentralized, are mobile. This class comprises of very different environments, including for example: software mobile agents in communication networks, mobile sensors networks, robotic networks, etc. These systems have been long the subject of intensive investigations in fields as diverse as AI, robotics, and software engineering. In recent years, an increasing number of algorithmic investigations in distributed computing have started to examine these settings, creating the research area of distributed computing by mobile entities. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.