Asynchronous Discrete Event Systems and Emergence of Computational Chaos

Asynchronous computing environments provide an ideal framework for conceptual modeling and simulation of large scale, distributed discrete event systems. Such environments may, however, exhibit an aperiodic oscillatory behavior referred to as “computational chaos”, which impedes the correct processing of quantities of interest. In this paper, we illustrate the emergence of computational chaos from fixed point and limit cycle attractors for a simple network model. In particular, the complete Lyapunov spectrum associated with the network dynamics is computed, and conditions that prevent its emergence are briefly discussed.