A scalable approach to multi-agent resource acquisition and control

Abstract

Scalable coordination is a key challenge in deployment of multi-agent systems. Resource usage is one part of agent behavior which naturally lends itself to abstraction. CyberOrgs is a model for hierarchical coordination of resource usage by multi-agent applications in a network of peer-owned resources. Programming constructs based on the CyberOrgs model allow resource trade and reiflcation of control while maintaining a separation between functional and resource concerns of applications. A prototype implementation of CyberOrgs is described and expressive power of the programming constructs is illustrated with examples. Hierarchical control presents challenges in scalability. However, CyberOrgs make some types of resource coordination more amenable to efficient implementation. Hierarchical scheduling for processor time, for instance, can be implemented scalably by efficiently converting the hierarchical schedule into a flat schedule on the fly. This mechanism can be generalized to achieve scalable coordination of some other resource types. Experimental results are presented which demonstrate scalability of this approach. Copyright 2005 ACM.