DisChoco : A platform for distributed constraint programming

Open-source platforms are very useful for development and experimentation in constraint programming. However, until recently, no such platform existed for distributed constraint programming. This paper presents DisChoco, a platform for distributed constraint programming. DisChoco is a Java library implemented using the Choco solver and simple agent communication infrastructure (SACI). DisChoco can be used for simulation of a multi-agents environment on a single Java virtual machine, or performed in an environment physically distributed for a realistic use. DisChoco takes into account agent with a complex local problem, message loss, message corruption, and message delay. The implementation of DisChoco was made to offer a modular software architecture which accepts extensions easily. This paper presents the software architecture and illustrates how to implement a specific protocol.