Distributed Constraint Satisfaction Problems -- A Model and Application

A canonical model for distributed constraint satisfaction problems (DCSP) is presented and algorithms for processing constraints on a DCSP are described. The central idea behind a constraint network that is given as a DCSP is the existence of large differences between the cost of message passing among different components of a DCSP and the cost of local consistency checks within each component. Therefore, algorithms which operate in a multi-agent environment to solve these problems are required to take into consideration these differences. Four basic algorithms for solving DCSPs that are sound and complete are proposed. Two of these algorithms are sequential and two algorithms operate in parallel and are inherently distributed. The behavior of the proposed algorithms was tested by generating and solving a set of random DCSPs (for a variety of parameters of density and homogeneity ). The results show the superiority of the parallel algorithms when the cost variances are large. A serie..

Multiphase Consensus Communication in Collaborative Problem Solving

. The big strength of intelligent agents | their communicative abilities | can often change into a big hindrance in real-world applications of collaborative problem solving. One can often observe that communication overhead annihilates the merits of partitioning the given problem. In this article, I introduce a concept called dynamic reconguration that allows for adapting the multi agent system structure to the given problem structure thus saving communication costs. The main focus lies on a novel consensus protocol that supports this reconguration and assumes benevolent, trustworthy agents. Hence, it is like the whole reconguration approach itself mainly applicable for rather closed systems, e. g. information or control systems. The protocol claims to enhance the eciency of consensus nding by using several dierent phases of negotiation. 1 Introduction Todays information technology systems face a great demand for managing complex distributed business processes. Rece..