Distributed Sensor Networks: Introduction to a Multiagent Perspective

As computer networks (and computational grids) become increasingly complex, the problem of allocating resources within such networks, in a distributed fashion, will become more and more of a design and implementation concern. This is especially true where the allocation involves distributed collections of resources rather than just a single resource, where there are alternative patterns of resources with different levels of utility that can satisfy the desired allocation, and where this allocation process must be done in soft real-time. This book is the first of its kind to examine solutions to this problem using ideas taken from the field of multiagent systems. The field of multiagent systems has itself seen an exponential growth in the past decade, and has developed a variety of techniques for distributed resource allocation.