Cooperative Problem Solving in Telecommunication Network

Swarm intelligence, as demonstrated by natural biological swarms, has numerous powerful properties desirable in many engineering systems, such as telecommunication. Communication network management is becoming increasingly difficult due to the increasing size, rapidly changing topology, and complexity of communication networks. This paper describes how biologically-inspired agents can be used to solve control problems in telecommunications. These agents, inspired by the foraging behaviour of ants, exhibit the desirable characteristics of simplicity of action and interaction. The collection of agents, or swarm system, deals only with local knowledge and exhibits a form of distributed control with agent communication effected through the environment. In this paper we explore the application of ant-like agents to the problem of routing in telecommunication networks. Indexing terms/