A distributed asynchronous system for predictive and reactive scheduling

Abstract

In DAS, the distributed asynchronous scheduler, the scheduling problem is decomposed both functionally and spatially across a hierarchy of communicating agents where each agent exhibits the properties of opportunism, reaction and belief maintenance. Each agent corresponds to a distinct software process, all of which may run concurrently. To be able to work towards a global solution each agent may react to change induced upon it by other agents and is able to negotiate with agents. The external world is treated as an agent with one exceptional property, negotiation is disallowed. The system is disciplined such that problem solving effort can be dynamically focused and decision making synchronized. DAS does not differentiate between prediction and reaction. By retaining knowledge of the search space explored and the remaining opportunities, reaction is considered as a continuation of search or conversely prediction is considered as a series of reactions.