Publications @Article{ForMasSpeJGC08, AUTHOR = {Forestiero, Agostino and Mastroianni, Carlo and Spezzano, Giandomenico}, TITLE = {Building a Peer-to-peer Information System in Grids via Self-organizing Agents}, YEAR = {2008}, MONTH = {June}, JOURNAL = {Journal of Grid Computing}, VOLUME = {6}, NUMBER = {2}, PAGES = {125-140}, PUBLISHER = {Springer Netherlands}, URL = {http://springerlink.metapress.com/content/d2455m2464m32v87/?p=7150dfc301c6430c91b313f226108a73&pi=12}, PDF = {http://gridlab.dimes.unical.it/papers/pdf/JGC2008-ForestieroMastroianniSpezzano.pdf}, ABSTRACT = {A Grid information system should rely upon two basic features: the replication and dissemination of information about Grid services and resources, and the distribution of such information among Grid hosts. This paper examines an approach based on ant systems to replicate and map Grid services information on Grid hosts according to the semantic classification of such services. The Ant-based Replication and MApping Protocol (ARMAP) is used to disseminate resource information by a decentralized mechanism, and its effectiveness is evaluated by means of an entropy index. Information is disseminated by agents – ants – that traverse the Grid by exploiting P2P interconnections among Grid hosts. A mechanism inspired by real ants’ pheromone is used by each agent to autonomously drive its behavior on the basis of its interaction with the environment. “Swarm Intelligence” emerges from the activity of a high number of ants. The ARMAP protocol enables the use of a semi-informed search algorithm which can drive query messages towards a cluster of peers having information about resources belonging to the requested class. A simulation analysis has been performed to evaluate the performance of ARMAP.}, KEYWORDS = {Grid, Multi-agent systems, self-organization, swarm intelligence} }