Controlling Chaos in Distributed Systems

@ARTICLE {
 AUTHOR = "Tad Hogg and Bernardo A. Huberman",
 TITLE = "Controlling Chaos in Distributed Systems",
 JOURNAL = "IEEE Trans. on Systems, Man and Cybernetics",
 VOLUME = "21",
 NUMBER = "6",
 PAGES = "1325-1332",
 MONTH = "November/December",
 YEAR = "1991"}

Abstract

We describe a simple and robust procedure for freezing out chaotic behavior in systems composed of interacting agents making decisions based on imperfect and delayed information. It is based on a reward mechanism whereby the relative number of computational agents following effective strategies is increased at the expense of the others. This procedure, which generates a diverse population out of an essentially homogeneous one, is able to control chaos through a series of dynamical bifurcations into a stable fixed point. Stability boundaries are computed and the minimal amount of diversity required in the system is established.
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