Autonomous Decentralised Systems and their Applications

by Dr. Yinong Chen, Department of Computer Science
University of the Witwatersrand

Introduction
The autonomous decentralised system is a relatively new system architecture 
which can be categorized as being between a distributed system and a 
computer network. 

A distributed system is a system with multiple autonomous computers managed 
by a coherent operating system. The main purpose is to increase the 
performance/cost ratio of the system. The multiple computers are transparent 
to users. A user uses a distributed system like a simplex computer. It is up 
to the operating system to select the best computer, find and transport all 
the input files to that computer, and put the results in the appropriate 
place. A computer network contains also multiple autonomous computers. 
These computers are managed by independent and possibly different type of 
operating systems. The main purpose of a network is for resource sharing. 
To use another computer, a user has to explicitly login to that computer 
by providing the address, a login name and a password. The users also has 
to find the locations of input files and decide where to put the results 
when they use a network.

The main features of an autonomous decentralised system are
* Autonomous controllability like a network
	- Each node manages itself using an independent operating system.
	- Failure of a node won't stop the other nodes.
* Autonomous coordination like a distributed system
	- Nodes have similar hardware and software configuration.
	- Nodes work together to solve coherent and interactive problems.
	- Nodes reallocate tasks after a node fails to keep system running.
During the last six years, autonomous decentralised systems have advanced, 
along with the rapid development of other related technologies such as 
mobile agents, distributed systems and internet, to provide solutions for 
control and information systems. In the following sections I will introduce 
a few applications using the autonomous decentralised technology.