Decentralised Autonomic Computing: Analysing Self-Organising Emergent Behaviour using Advanced Numerical Methods

When designing decentralised autonomic computing systems, a fundamental engineering issue is to assess systemwide behaviour. Such decentralised systems are characterised by the lack of global control, typically consist of autonomous cooperating entities, and often rely on selforganised emergent behaviour to achieve the requirements. A well-founded and practically feasible approach to study overall system behaviour is a prerequisite for successful deployment. On one hand, formal proofs of correct behaviour and even predictions of the exact systemwide behaviour are practically infeasible due to the complex, dynamic, and often non-deterministic nature of selforganising emergent systems. On the other hand, simple simulations give no convincing arguments for guaranteeing system-wide properties. We describe an alternative approach that allows to analyse and assess trends in systemwide behaviour, based on so-called “equation-free” macroscopic analysis. This technique yields more reliable...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: ICAC
• Authors: Tom De Wolf, Giovanni Samaey, Tom Holvoet, Dirk Roose
• Keywords: Autonomic Computing, Autonomic Computing Systems, Decentralised, ICAC 2005, Systemwide Behaviour