PYI Award: Decentralized Control in Large Distributed Systems

这位总统青年调查员正在具有自适应分散资源控制的大型分布式计算机系统中进行研究，即驻留在地理上分散的一组计算机上的决策代理的集合，这些决策代理控制资源，以便能够以综合和协调的方式开展工作。寻找自适应分散控制的好方法解决了如何根据分散控制产生的巨大问题正确而有效地做出任务和资源分配选择的问题。这些问题中最困难的可能是多个代理必须基于对全局系统状态的不确定和不同的观点做出良好、快速、协调的决策。研究方法是实验性的。首席调查员将创建一个实验室，研究负载平衡、网络路由以及分布式传感和解释问题。实验室将由多个工作站和一个文件服务器组成，这些工作站通过各种不同的网络相互连接，以便在不同的拓扑结构下进行分散协调协议的工作；一个通用的多处理器，允许以数十万个笔记作为控制剂进行实验；以及开发软件，包括原型面向对象编程环境和专家系统环境。//

This Presidential Young Investigator is performing research in large distributed computer systems with adaptive decentralized resource control, i.e., collections of decision-making agents which reside on a geographically distributed set of computers and which control resources so that work can be carried out in an integrated and coordinated fashion. Finding good methods for adaptive decentralized control addresses the question of how to make task and resource allocation choices correctly and efficiently in light of the formidable problems which arise as a result of distributing control. Probably the most difficult of these problems is that multiple agents must make good fast coordinated decisions based on uncertain and differing views of the global system state. The research approach is experimental. The Principal Investigator will create a laboratory to work on problems of load balancing, network routing and distributed sensing and interpretation. The laboratory will consist of multiple workstations with a file server, interconnected by a variety of different networks for work on decentralized coordination protocols under different topologies, a general purpose multiprocessor allowing for experiments to be conducted with notes acting as controlling agents numbering in the hundreds of thousands, and development software, including prototype object-oriented programming environments and expert system environments.//