A multi-agent simulation framework on small Hadoop cluster

In this paper, we explore the benefits and possibilities about the implementation of multi-agents simulation framework on a Hadoop cloud. Scalability, fault-tolerance and failure-recovery have always been a challenge for a distributed systems application developer. The highly efficient fault tolerant nature of Hadoop, flexibility to include more systems on the fly, efficient load balancing and the platform-independent Java are useful features for development of any distributed simulation. In this paper, we propose a framework for agent simulation environment built on Hadoop cloud. Specifically, we show how agents are represented, how agents do their computation and communication, and how agents are mapped to datanodes. Further, we demonstrate that even if some of the systems fail in the distributed setup, Hadoop automatically rebalances the work load on remaining systems and the simulation continues. We present some performance results on this environment for a few example scenarios.

► Scalability of multi-agent simulations using Hadoop.
► Handle node failures without affecting ongoing simulation by task redistribution.
► Dynamic addition of new computing nodes while the simulation is running.
► Allow simulations to run on machines running heterogeneous operating systems.