Simulating Autonomous Mobile Programs on Networks

Autonomous mobile programs (AMPs) have been proposed for load management in dynamic networks. An AMP is aware of its resource needs and periodically seeks a better location in the network to reduce execution time. AMPs have previously been measured using mobile Java Voyager on local area networks (LANs). We have constructed a simulation model of AMPs and reproduced 4 sets of experiments on homogeneous networks, i.e. networks where all locations have the same processor speed, and 2 sets of experiments on heterogeneous networks with collection of large and small AMPs. The results show that simulated collections of AMPs obtain similar balanced states to those reached in the real experiments, and have only minor differences from real experimental results. The simulation model gives an opportunity to explore the greedy effect that can be observed in the real experiments. This gives us confidence to apply the simulation model for further investigation of AMP behaviour, including behaviours on wide area networks.