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• 1. Models for mobile agent computing
• Introduction
• What is a mobile agent
• Why mobile agents
• An algorithmic model for mobile agents
• Mobile agents
• Distributed networks
• Resource measures
• Mobile agent rendezvous
• Outline of the book
• Comments and bibliographic remarks.

• 2. Deterministic rendezvous in a ring
• Introduction
• A single stationary token
• The feasibility of rendezvous
• The time complexity of rendezvous
• Memory tradeoff for rendezvous with detection
• Limits to the memory trade-off
• Movable tokens
• Comments and bibliographic remarks.

• 3. Multiple agent rendezvous in a ring
• Introduction
• Impossibility of rendezvous
• Rendezvous with detection
• Conditional solutions
• Comments and bibliographic remarks.

• 4. Randomized rendezvous in a ring
• Introduction
• Random walk algorithm
• Randomization and tokens
• Time/memory trade-offs
• Coin half tour algorithm
• Approximate counting algorithm
• Comments and bibliographic remarks.

• 5. Other models
• Introduction
• Leader election and rendezvous
• Rendezvous with failing tokens
• Rendezvous when tokens fail upon release
• Rendezvous when tokens can fail at any time
• The cost of token failure
• Flickering tokens
• Asynchronous rendezvous
• Look-compute-move
• Model and terminology
• Impossibility results
• Gathering configurations with a single multiplicity
• Gathering rigid configurations
• Gathering an odd number of robots
• Dangerous networks
• Black-hole search in an asynchronous ring
• Rendezvous in asynchronous rings in spite of a black-hole
• Comments and bibliographic remarks.

• 6. Other topologies
• Introduction
• Synchronous torus
• Memory lower bounds for rendezvous
• Rendezvous algorithms
• Trees
• Arbitrary graphs
• Comments and bibliographic remarks.

• Bibliography
• Glossary
• Authors' biographies
• Index.

Mobile agent computing is being used in fields as diverse as artificial intelligence, computational economics and robotics. Agents' ability to adapt dynamically and execute asynchronously and autonomously brings potential advantages in terms of fault-tolerance, flexibility and simplicity. This monograph focuses on studying mobile agents as modelled in distributed systems research and in particular within the framework of research performed in the distributed algorithms community. It studies the fundamental question of how to achieve rendezvous, the gathering of two or more agents at the same node of a network. Like leader election, such an operation is a useful subroutine in more general computations that may require the agents to synchronize, share information, divide up chores, etc. The work provides an introduction to the algorithmic issues raised by the rendezvous problem in the distributed computing setting. For the most part our investigation concentrates on the simplest case of two agents attempting to rendezvous on a ring network. Other situations including multiple agents, faulty nodes and other topologies are also examined. An extensive bibliography provides many pointers to related work not covered in the text. The presentation has a distinctly algorithmic, rigorous, distributed computing flavor and most results should be easily accessible to advanced undergraduate and graduate students in computer science and mathematics departments.

• 1. Models for mobile agent computing
• Introduction
• What is a mobile agent
• Why mobile agents
• An algorithmic model for mobile agents
• Mobile agents
• Distributed networks
• Resource measures
• Mobile agent rendezvous
• Outline of the book
• Comments and bibliographic remarks --

• 2. Deterministic rendezvous in a ring
• Introduction
• A single stationary token
• The feasibility of rendezvous
• The time complexity of rendezvous
• Memory tradeoff for rendezvous with detection
• Limits to the memory trade-off
• Movable tokens
• Comments and bibliographic remarks --

• 3. Multiple agent rendezvous in a ring
• Introduction
• Impossibility of rendezvous
• Rendezvous with detection
• Conditional solutions
• Comments and bibliographic remarks --

• 4. Randomized rendezvous in a ring
• Introduction
• Random walk algorithm
• Randomization and tokens
• Time/memory trade-offs
• Coin half tour algorithm
• Approximate counting algorithm
• Comments and bibliographic remarks --

• 5. Other models
• Introduction
• Leader election and rendezvous
• Rendezvous with failing tokens
• Rendezvous when tokens fail upon release
• Rendezvous when tokens can fail at any time
• The cost of token failure
• Flickering tokens
• Asynchronous rendezvous
• Look-compute-move
• Model and terminology
• Impossibility results
• Gathering configurations with a single multiplicity
• Gathering rigid configurations
• Gathering an odd number of robots
• Dangerous networks
• Black-hole search in an asynchronous ring
• Rendezvous in asynchronous rings in spite of a black-hole
• Comments and bibliographic remarks --

• 6. Other topologies
• Introduction
• Synchronous torus
• Memory lower bounds for rendezvous
• Rendezvous algorithms
• Trees
• Arbitrary graphs
• Comments and bibliographic remarks --

• Bibliography
• Glossary
• Authors' biographies
• Index.

Mobile agent computing is being used in fields as diverse as artificial intelligence, computational economics and robotics. Agents' ability to adapt dynamically and execute asynchronously and autonomously brings potential advantages in terms of fault-tolerance, flexibility and simplicity. This monograph focuses on studying mobile agents as modelled in distributed systems research and in particular within the framework of research performed in the distributed algorithms community. It studies the fundamental question of how to achieve rendezvous, the gathering of two or more agents at the same node of a network. Like leader election, such an operation is a useful subroutine in more general computations that may require the agents to synchronize, share information, divide up chores, etc. The work provides an introduction to the algorithmic issues raised by the rendezvous problem in the distributed computing setting.For the most part our investigation concentrates on the simplest case of two agents attempting to rendezvous on a ring network.Other situations including multiple agents, faulty nodes and other topologies are also examined. An extensive bibliography provides many pointers to related work not covered in the text. The presentation has a distinctly algorithmic, rigorous, distributed computing flavor and most results should be easily accessible to advanced undergraduate and graduate students in computer science and mathematics departments.