Bio-inspired Self-adaptive Agents in Distributed Systems

Cellular differentiation is the mechanism by which cells in a multicellular organism become specialized to perform specific functions in a variety of tissues and organs. Different kinds of cell behaviors can be observed during embryogenesis: cells double, change in shape, and attach at and migrate to various sites. We construct a framework for building and operating distributed applications with the notion of cellular differentiation and division in cellular slime molds, e.g., dictyostelium discoideum and mycelium. It is almost impossible to exactly know the functions that each of the components should provide, since distributed systems are dynamic and may partially have malfunctioned, e.g., network partitioning. The framework enables software components, called agents, to differentiate their functions according to their roles in whole applications and resource availability, as just like cells. It involves treating the undertaking/delegation of functions in agents from/to other agents as their differentiation factors. When an agent delegates a function to another agent, if the former has the function, its function becomes less-developed and the latter’s function becomes well-developed.