Towards Multi-Swarm Problem Solving in Networks

This paper describes how multiple interacting swarms of adaptive mobile agents can be used to solve problems in networks. The paper introduces a new architectural description for an agent that is chemically inspired and proposes chemical interaction as the principal mechanism for inter-swarm communication. Agents within a given swarm have behavior that is inspired by the foraging activities of ants, with each agent capable of simple actions and knowledge of a global goal is not assumed. The creation of chemical trails is proposed as the primary mechanism used in distributed problem solving arising from self-organization of swarms of agents. The paper proposes that swarm chemistries can be engineered in order to apply the principal ideas of the Subsumption Architecture in the domain of mobile agents. The paper presents applications of the new architecture in the domain of communications networks and describes the essential elements of a mobile agent framework that is being considered for its implementation.