The Phase Transition in Distributed Constraint Satisfaction Problems: First Results

Abstract

For solving a distributed CSP by a distributed constraint satisfaction algorithm, since agents usually have intra-agent constraints (constraints which are defined over variables of one agent) and inter-agent constraints (constraints which are defined over variables of multiple agents), they have not only to perform local computation to satisfy their intra- and inter-agent constraints, but also to communicate with other agents to satisfy their inter-agent constraints. The efficiency of a distributed constraint satisfaction algorithm depends on its communication cost and computation cost, and both can vary with the numbers of intra- and inter-agents constraints. Therefore, it is important to know how the numbers of intra- and inter-agent constraints affect the communication and computation costs of a distributed constraint satisfaction algorithm because such an information may give us a hint to develop a more efficient distributed constraint satisfaction algorithm.