An Approach to Analyzing the Need for Meta-Level Communication

This paper presents an analysis of static and dynamic organizational structures for naturally distributed, homogeneous, cooperative problem solving environments, exemplified by distributed sensor networks. We first show how the performance of any static organization can be statistically described, and then show under what conditions dynamic organizations do better and worse than static ones. Finally, we show how the variance in the agents' performance leads to uncertainty about whether a dynamic organization wi l l perform better than a static one given only agent a priori expectations. In these cases, we show when meta-level communication about the actual state of problem solving wi l l be useful to agents in constructing a dynamic organizational structure that outperforms a static one. Viewed in its entirety, this paper also presents a methodology for answering questions about the design of distributed problem solving systems by analysis and simulation of the characteristics of a complex environment rather than by relying on single-instance examples.