MIT Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

(a) A network programming language Nepi^2 and its application to an auction (b) On Formal Modeling of Agent Computation

(a) Ken Mano & (b) Paul Attie

Monday, November 29, 1999
1:00 PM
NE43-516
Theory of Distributed Systems Seminars

Abstract

(a)

We are developing a network programming language Nepi^2 based on a process algebra called the $\pi$-calculus. A proces algebra is a system to describe communication, generation of peocesses, etc., using corresponding algebraic operators. The $\pi$-calculus is capable of dynamic generating and passing of communication channels.

As an application, we wrote an electric auction system called Spanish fish market in Nepi^2. Spanish fish market is a kind of dutch auction system formalized by Rodriguez, Noriega, Sierra, Padget, et al. based on a real marketplace. However, we had to use some inefficient protocol in order to avoid `unfair' executions. I'd like to disscuss how to overcome this inefficiency.

(b)

We present a formal model for defining and reasoning about agent systems. An agent is an autonomous software entity, who cooperates with other agents in carrying out delegated tasks. Agent systems are ``dynamic'' in two senses: (1) agents are created and destroyed as computation proceeds, and (2) agents change ``location.'' Our model extends the I/O automaton model of LT87 to provide for both kinds of dynamism. We provide explicit ``create'' and ``destroy'' operations, and we model mobility by allowing an agent to dynamically change its external interface. The overall goal is to develop formal languages and underlying mathematical models to serve as a foundation for ``agent-style'' distributed computation.