Autonomous Mobile Programs

To manage load on large and dynamic networks we propose Autonomous Mobile Programs (AMPs) that periodically use a cost model to decide where to execute in the network. Unusually this form of autonomous mobility affects only where the program executes and not what it does. We present a generic AMP cost model, together with a validated instantiation and comparative performance results for two AMPs. Experiments on a homogeneous network show that collections of AMPs quickly obtain and maintain optimal or near-optimal balance. The advantages of our decentralised approach are scalability to very large and dynamic networks, improved balance, and guaranteed maximum overhead. The disadvantages are higher overheads and the necessity of both a cost model and explicit mobility control.