Skip to main content

Towards Fault-Tolerant Massively Multiagent Systems

  • Conference paper

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 3446))

Abstract

In order to construct and deploy massively multiagent systems, we must address one of the fundamental issues of distributed systems, the possibility of partial failures. In this paper, we discuss the issues and propose an approach for fault-tolerance of massively multiagent systems. The starting idea is the application of replication strategies to agents. As criticality of agents may evolve during the course of computation and problem solving, and as resources are bounded, we need to dynamically and automatically adapt the number of replicas of agents, in order to maximize their reliability and availability. We will describe our approach and related mechanisms for evaluating the criticality of a given agent and how to parameterize it (e.g., number of replicas). We also will report on experiments conducted with our prototype architecture (named DarX).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Bertier, M., Marin, O., Sens, P.: Implementation and performance evaluation of an adaptable failure detector. In: The International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, Washington, USA (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Fedoruk, A., Deters, R.: Improving fault-tolerance by replicating agents. In: AAMAS 2002, Bologna, Italy, pp. 373–744 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  3. FIPA. Agent communication language, foundation for intelligent physical agents, Geneva, Switzerland (1997), http://www.cselt.stet.it/ufv/leonardo/fipa/index.htm

  4. Golm, M.: Metaxa and the future of reflection. In: OOPSLA -Workshop on Reflective Programming in C++ and Java, pp. 238–256 (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Guerraoui, R., Garbinato, B., Mazouni, K.: Lessons from designing and implementing GARF. In: Briot, J.-P., Geib, J.-M., Yonezawa, A. (eds.) OBPDC 1995. LNCS, vol. 1107, pp. 238–256. Springer, Heidelberg (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Guessoum, Z., Briot, J.-P.: From active objects to autonomous agents. IEEE Concurrency 7(3), 68–76 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Guessoum, Z., Briot, J.-P., Charpentier, S.: Dynamic and adaptative replication for large-scale reliable multi-agent systems. In: Proceedings of the ICSE 2002 First International Workshop on Software Engineering for Large-Scale Multi-Agent Systems (SELMAS 2002). ACM, New York (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Hagg, S.: A sentinel approach to fault handling in multi-agent systems. In: Dickson, L., Zhang, C. (eds.) DAI 1996. LNCS, vol. 1286, pp. 190–195. Springer, Heidelberg (1997)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Kaminka, G.A., Pynadath, D.V., Tambe, M.: Monitoring teams by overhearing: A multi-agent plan-recognition approach. Journal of Intelligence Artificial Research 17, 83–135 (2002)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  10. Kraus, S., Subrahmanian, V.S., Cihan Tacs, N.: Probabilistically survivable MASs. In: IJCAI 2003, pp. 789–795 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Odell, J.J., Dyke Parunak, H.V., Bauer, B.: Representing agent interaction protocols in UML. In: Fourth International Conference on Autonomous Agents, pp. 121–140 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  12. De Assis Silva, F., Popescu-Zeletin, R.: An approach for providing mobile agent fault tolerance. In: Rothermel, K., Hohl, F. (eds.) MA 1998. LNCS, vol. 1477, pp. 14–25. Springer, Heidelberg (1998)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Silva, L., Batista, V., Silva, J.: Fault-tolerant execution of mobile agents. In: International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, pp. 135–143 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  14. van Renesse, R., Birman, K., Maffeis, S.: Horus: A flexible group communication system. Communications of the ACM 39(4), 76–83 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Guessoum, Z., Briot, JP., Faci, N. (2005). Towards Fault-Tolerant Massively Multiagent Systems. In: Ishida, T., Gasser, L., Nakashima, H. (eds) Massively Multi-Agent Systems I. MMAS 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3446. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11512073_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11512073_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-26974-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31889-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics