Ant colony optimisation for resource searching in dynamic peer-to-peer grids

The applicability of peer-to-peer (p2p) in the domain of grid computing has been an important subject over the past years. Nevertheless, the sole merger between p2p and the concept of grid is not sufficient to guarantee non-trivial efficiency. Some claim that ant colony optimisation (ACO) algorithms might provide a definite answer to this question. However, the use of ACO in grid networks causes several problems. The first and foremost stems out of the fact that ACO algorithms usually perform well under the conditions of static networks, solving predetermined problems in a known and bound space. The question that remains to be answered is whether the evolutive component of these algorithms is able to cope with changing conditions; and by those we mean changes both in the positive sense, such as the appearance of new resources, but also in the negative sense, such as the disappearance or failure of fragments of the network. In this paper we study these considerations in depth, bearing in mind the specificity of the peer-to-peer nature.