Skip to main content
Log in

Dynamic Ordering for Asynchronous Backtracking on DisCSPs

  • Published:
Constraints Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

An algorithm that performs asynchronous backtracking on distributed \(CSPs\), with dynamic ordering of agents is proposed, \(ABT\_DO\). Agents propose reorderings of lower priority agents and send these proposals whenever they send assignment messages. Changes of ordering triggers a different computation of \(Nogoods\). The dynamic ordered asynchronous backtracking algorithm uses polynomial space, similarly to standard \(ABT\). The \(ABT\_DO\) algorithm with three different ordering heuristics is compared to standard \(ABT\) on randomly generated \(DisCSPs\). A Nogood-triggered heuristic, inspired by dynamic backtracking, is found to outperform static order \(ABT\) by a large factor in run-time and improve the network load.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Bacchus, F., & van Run, P. (1995). Dynamic variable ordering in csps. In Proc. Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP-95) (pp. 258–275).

  2. Bessiere, C., Maestre, A., Brito, I., & Meseguer, P. (2005). Asynchronous backtracking without adding links: A new member in the abt family. Artificial Intelligence, 161(1–2), 7–24 (January).

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  3. Bessiere, C., Maestre, A., & Messeguer, P. (2001). Distributed dynamic backtracking. In Proc. Workshop on Distributed Constraint of IJCAI01.

  4. Bessiere, C., & Regin, J. C. (1995). Using bidirectionality to speed up arc-consistency processing. Constraint Processing (LNCS 923) (pp. 157–169).

  5. Brito, I., & Meseguer, P. (2004). Synchronous,asnchronous and hybrid algorithms for discsp. In Workshop on Distributed Constraints Reasoning (DCR-04) CP-2004. Toronto (September).

  6. Dechter, R. (2003). Constraint Processing. Morgan Kaufman.

  7. Frost, D., & Dechter, R. (1994). In search of the best constraint satisfaction search. In Proc. Twelfth National Conference of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-94) (pp. 301–306). Seattle, USA (August).

  8. Gent, I. P., MacIntyre, E., Prosser, P., Smith, Barbara M., & Walsh, T. (1996). An empirical study of dynamic variable ordering heuristics for the constraint satisfaction problem. In Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (pp. 179–193).

  9. Ginsberg, M. L. (1993). Dynamic backtracking. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 1, 25–46.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  10. Hamadi, Y. (2001). Distributed interleaved parallel and cooperative search in constraint satisfaction networks. In Proc. IAT-01. Singapore.

  11. Hamadi, Y., & Bessiere, C. (1998). Backtracking in distributed constraint networks. In Proc. ECAI-98 (pp. 219–223). Brighton (August).

  12. Haralick, R. M., & Elliott, G. L. (1980). Increasing tree search efficiency for constraint satisfaction problems. Artificial Intelligence, 14, 263–313.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Lamport, L. (1978). Time, clocks, and the ordering of events in distributed system. Communications of the ACM, 2, 95–114 (April).

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  14. Lynch, N. A. (1997). Distributed Algorithms. Morgan Kaufmann Series.

  15. Meisels, A., Razgon, I., Kaplansky, E., & Zivan, R. (2002). Comparing performance of distributed constraints processing algorithms. In Proc. AAMAS-2002 Workshop on Distributed Constraint Reasoning DCR (pp. 86–93). Bologna (July).

  16. Meisels, A., & Zivan, R. (2003). Asynchronous forward-checking for distributed csps. In W. Zhang (Ed.), Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications. IOS.

  17. Nguyen, T., Sam-Hroud, D., & Faltings, B. (2004). Dynamic distributed backjumping. In Proc. 5th Workshop on Distributed Constraints Reasoning DCR-04. Toronto (September).

  18. Prosser, P. (1993). Hybrid algorithms for the constraint satisfaction problem. Computational Intelligence, 9, 268–299.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Prosser, P. (1996). An empirical study of phase transitions in binary constraint satisfaction problems. Artificial Intelligence, 81, 81–109.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  20. Silaghi, M. C., & Faltings, B. (2005). Asynchronous aggregation and consistency in distributed constraint satisfaction. Artificial Intelligence, 161(1–2), 25–54 (January).

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  21. Silaghi, M. C., Sam-Haroud, D., & Faltings, B. (2001). Hybridizing abt and awc into a polynomial space, complete protocol with reordering. Technical Report 01/#364, EPFL (May).

  22. Smith, B. M. (1996). Locating the phase transition in binary constraint satisfaction problems. Artificial Intelligence, 81, 155–181.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  23. Solotorevsky, G., Gudes, E., & Meisels, A. (1996). Modeling and solving distributed constraint satisfaction problems (dcsps). In Constraint Processing-96, (short paper) (pp. 561–562). Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (October).

  24. Yokoo, M. (1995). Asynchronous weak-commitment search for solving distributed constraint satisfaction problems. In Proc. 1st Intrnat. Conf. on Const. Progr. (pp. 88–102). Cassis, France.

  25. Yokoo, M. (2000). Algorithms for distributed constraint satisfaction problems: A review. Autonomous Agents & Multi-Agent Sys., 3, 198–212.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Yokoo, M., Durfee, E. H., Ishida, T., & Kuwabara, K. (1998). Distributed constraint satisfaction problem: Formalization and algorithms. IEEE Trans. Data Kn. Eng., 10, 673–685.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Zivan, R., & Meisels, A. (2003). Synchronous vs asynchronous search on discsps. In Proc. 1st European Workshop on Multi Agent System, EUMAS. Oxford (December).

  28. Zivan, R., & Meisels, A. (2006). Message delay and asynchronous discsp search. Archives of Control, (accepted for publication).

  29. Zivan, R., & Meisels, A. (2006). Message delay and discsp search algorithms. Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence (AMAI), (accepted for publication).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amnon Meisels.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Zivan, R., Meisels, A. Dynamic Ordering for Asynchronous Backtracking on DisCSPs. Constraints 11, 179–197 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10601-006-8062-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10601-006-8062-0

Keywords

Navigation