Engineering scalable multi-agent communities

Various aspects of scalability are investigated, and a survey of various approaches to define this term is provided. Subsequently a description of metrics that may be used to measure and quantify scalability are introduced, and based on system, agent behaviour, coordination and organisation parameters. The LEAF toolkit for building scalable systems which can take account of both functional characteristics - through "functional utility", and the performance characteristics of a system - through a "performance utility" is then outlined. These two utility approaches may be used to combine system, behaviour, coordination and organisation metrics, and provide a first step towards constructing scalable systems.

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