Symbiotic Multi-Path Routing with Attractor Selection

In this paper we discuss the effects of symbiosis when using an attractor selection model for multi-path routing in an overlay network. Attractor selection is a biologically inspired approach which is found in E. coli cells to selfadaptively react to changes of a nutrient in the environment. It is driven by noise and we present its application to selecting the paths in an overlay network for the transmission of a packet. This selection is performed with randomization to reduce the selfishness of each flow and to improve the overall performance of the network. Our main focus in this paper lies on showing the symbiotic behavior in the interaction of competing flows.