Implementing Distributed Controllers for Systems with Priorities

TL;DR

This paper presents an algorithm for implementing distributed controllers in component-based systems with priorities, ensuring global constraints are maintained in a distributed environment, supported by simulation analysis of its sensitivity to conflicts.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel algorithm for distributed execution of systems with prioritized interactions, addressing the challenge of maintaining global constraints.

Findings

Algorithm effectively enforces global constraints in distributed systems.

System sensitivity varies with conflict levels, as shown by simulation.

Distributed control implementation is feasible for systems with binary interactions and priorities.

Abstract

Implementing a component-based system in a distributed way so that it ensures some global constraints is a challenging problem. We consider here abstract specifications consisting of a composition of components and a controller given in the form of a set of interactions and a priority order amongst them. In the context of distributed systems, such a controller must be executed in a distributed fashion while still respecting the global constraints imposed by interactions and priorities. We present in this paper an implementation of an algorithm that allows a distributed execution of systems with (binary) interactions and priorities. We also present a comprehensive simulation analysis that shows how sensitive to changes our algorithm is, in particular changes related to the degree of conflict in the system.