24,048 research outputs found
Agents for Integrating Distributed Data for Function Computations
Many practical problems occur when we wish to manipulate the data in a way that requires information not included explicitly in this data, and where we have to deal with functions of such a nature. In a networked environment, the data may reside in components on a number of geographically distributed sites. These databases cannot be moved to other network sites due to security, size, and privacy consideration. In this paper, we present two self-decomposing algorithms for constructing a function from given discrete data, and finding the extrema of any function whose arguments are stored across a number of distributed databases
Towards a Framework for Developing Mobile Agents for Managing Distributed Information Resources
Distributed information management tools allow users to author, disseminate, discover and manage information within large-scale networked environments, such as the Internet. Agent technology provides the flexibility and scalability necessary to develop such distributed information management applications. We present a layered organisation that is shared by the specific applications that we build. Within this organisation we describe an architecture where mobile agents can move across distributed environments, integrate with local resources and other mobile agents, and communicate their results back to the user
Wealth distribution in presence of debts. A Fokker--Planck description
We consider here a Fokker--Planck equation with variable coefficient of
diffusion which appears in the modeling of the wealth distribution in a
multi-agent society. At difference with previous studies, to describe a society
in which agents can have debts, we allow the wealth variable to be negative. It
is shown that, even starting with debts, if the initial mean wealth is assumed
positive, the solution of the Fokker--Planck equation is such that debts are
absorbed in time, and a unique equilibrium density located in the positive part
of the real axis will be reached
Robust Decentralized State Estimation and Tracking for Power Systems via Network Gossiping
This paper proposes a fully decentralized adaptive re-weighted state
estimation (DARSE) scheme for power systems via network gossiping. The enabling
technique is the proposed Gossip-based Gauss-Newton (GGN) algorithm, which
allows to harness the computation capability of each area (i.e. a database
server that accrues data from local sensors) to collaboratively solve for an
accurate global state. The DARSE scheme mitigates the influence of bad data by
updating their error variances online and re-weighting their contributions
adaptively for state estimation. Thus, the global state can be estimated and
tracked robustly using near-neighbor communications in each area. Compared to
other distributed state estimation techniques, our communication model is
flexible with respect to reconfigurations and resilient to random failures as
long as the communication network is connected. Furthermore, we prove that the
Jacobian of the power flow equations satisfies the Lipschitz condition that is
essential for the GGN algorithm to converge to the desired solution.
Simulations of the IEEE-118 system show that the DARSE scheme can estimate and
track online the global power system state accurately, and degrades gracefully
when there are random failures and bad data.Comment: to appear in IEEE JSA
A Finite-Time Cutting Plane Algorithm for Distributed Mixed Integer Linear Programming
Many problems of interest for cyber-physical network systems can be
formulated as Mixed Integer Linear Programs in which the constraints are
distributed among the agents. In this paper we propose a distributed algorithm
to solve this class of optimization problems in a peer-to-peer network with no
coordinator and with limited computation and communication capabilities. In the
proposed algorithm, at each communication round, agents solve locally a small
LP, generate suitable cutting planes, namely intersection cuts and cost-based
cuts, and communicate a fixed number of active constraints, i.e., a candidate
optimal basis. We prove that, if the cost is integer, the algorithm converges
to the lexicographically minimal optimal solution in a finite number of
communication rounds. Finally, through numerical computations, we analyze the
algorithm convergence as a function of the network size.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Object-oriented Tools for Distributed Computing
Distributed computing systems are proliferating, owing to the availability of powerful, affordable microcomputers and inexpensive communication networks. A critical problem in developing such systems is getting application programs to interact with one another across a computer network. Remote interprogram connectivity is particularly challenging across heterogeneous environments, where applications run on different kinds of computers and operating systems. NetWorks! (trademark) is an innovative software product that provides an object-oriented messaging solution to these problems. This paper describes the design and functionality of NetWorks! and illustrates how it is being used to build complex distributed applications for NASA and in the commercial sector
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