Large-Scale Distributed Coalition Formation

Abstract

The CyberCraft project is an effort to construct a large scale Distributed Multi-Agent System (DMAS) to provide autonomous Cyberspace defense and mission assurance for the DoD. It employs a small but flexible agent structure that is dynamically reconfigurable to accommodate new tasks and policies. This document describes research into developing protocols and algorithms to ensure continued mission execution in a system of one million or more agents, focusing on protocols for coalition formation and Command and Control. It begins by building large-scale routing algorithms for a Hierarchical Peer to Peer structured overlay network, called Resource-Clustered Chord (RC-Chord). RC-Chord introduces the ability to efficiently locate agents by resources that agents possess. Combined with a task model defined for CyberCraft, this technology feeds into an algorithm that constructs task coalitions in a large-scale DMAS. Experiments reveal the flexibility and effectiveness of these concepts for achieving maximum work throughput in a simulated CyberCraft environment

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