Simulating large-scale aggregate MASs with alchemist and scala

Abstract

Recent works in the context of large-scale adaptive systems, such as those based on opportunistic IoT-based applications, promote aggregate programming, a development approach for distributed systems in which the collectivity of devices is directly targeted, instead of individual ones. This makes the resulting behaviour highly insensitive to network size, density, and topology, and as such, intrinsically robust to failures and changes to working conditions (e.g., location of computational load, communication technology, and computational infrastructure). Most specifically, we argue that aggregate programming is particularly suitable for building models and simulations of complex large-scale reactive MASs. Accordingly, in this paper we describe SCAFI (Scala Fields), a Scala-based API and DSL for aggregate programming, and its integration with the ALCHEMIST simulator, and usage scenarios in the context of smart mobility.