On the use of hierarchical power-law network topology for server selection and allocation in multi-agent systems

In this paper, we focus on the effectiveness of using the power-law relationship that appears in actual network topology for solving server selection and allocation problems in multi-agent systems (MAS). We introduce the reverse weighted degree (RWD) server selection algorithm, which selects the nearest server with a lower load average, and the concept of the scope, which spreads the range of the topological information about neighbors. Furthermore, we evaluate the efficiency and fairness of the algorithm when server deployment is performed by using the degree-oriented server allocation, which places the server agent on more convenient nodes from the viewpoint of network topology, and by random server allocation. From simulation results using the real Internet topology, we find that awareness of the network structure can improve the total performance of agents significantly, though previous approaches in MAS did not consider the topology of the network.