Stably computable predicates are semilinear

We consider the model of population protocols introduced by Angluin et al. [2], in which anonymous finite-state agents stably compute a predicate of their inputs via twoway interactions in the all-pairs family of communication networks. We prove that all predicates stably computable in this model (and certain generalizations of it) are semilinear, answering a central open question about the power of the model. Categories and Subject Descriptors

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: PODC
• Authors: Dana Angluin, James Aspnes, David Eisenstat
• Keywords: Anonymous finite-state Agents, Distributed And Parallel Computing, PODC 2006, Population Protocols, Twoway Interactions