Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

Distributed constraint satisfaction with partially known constraints

  • Published:
Constraints Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Distributed constraint satisfaction problems (DisCSPs) are composed of agents connected by constraints. The standard model for DisCSP search algorithms uses messages containing assignments of agents. It assumes that constraints are checked by one of the two agents involved in a binary constraint, hence the constraint is fully known to both agents. This paper presents a new DisCSP model in which constraints are kept private and are only partially known to agents. In addition, value assignments can also be kept private to agents and not be circulated in messages. Two versions of a new asynchronous backtracking algorithm that work with partially known constraints (PKC) are presented. One is a two-phase asynchronous backtracking algorithm and the other uses only a single phase. Another new algorithm preserves the privacy of assignments by performing distributed forward-checking (DisFC). We propose to use entropy as quantitative measure for privacy. An extensive experimental evaluation demonstrates a trade-off between preserving privacy and the efficiency of search, among the different algorithms.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

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

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.

References

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

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  2. Brito, I., & Meseguer, P. (2003). Distributed forward checking. Proc. of 8th CP, 2833, 801–806.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Brito, I., & Meseguer, P. (2005). Distributed stable matching problems. Proc. of the 10th CP, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 3709, 152–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Chandy, K., & Lamport, L. (1985). Distributed snapshots: Determining global states of distributed systems. ACM Trans. Computer Systems, 3(2), 63–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Cover, T. M., & Thomas, J. A. (2006). Elements of information theory. Wiley (2nd ed).

  6. Gent, I. P., & Walsh, T. (1999). CSPlib: A benchmark library for constraints. Technical report APES-09-1999. Available from http://csplib.cs.strath.ac.uk/. A shorter version appears in the Proc. of the 5th CP (CP-1999) (pp. 480–481).

  7. Greenstadt, R. (2007). Improving privacy in distributed constraint optimization. Harvard Ph.D. thesis. Available from http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~greenie/hthesis.pdf.

  8. Haralick, R., & Elliot, G. (1980). Increasing tree search efficiency for constraint satisfaction problems. Artificial Intelligence, 14, 263–313.

    Article  Google Scholar 

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

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  10. Lynch, N. A. (1997). Distributed algorithms. Morgan Kaufmann.

  11. Maheswaran, R. T., Pearce, J. P., Bowring, E., Varakantham, P., Tambe, M. (2006). Privacy loss in distributed constraint reasoning: A quantative framework for analysis and its applications. Autonomous Agents and Multi Agent Systems, 13, 27–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Meisels, A., & Lavee, O. (2004). Using additional information in DisCSP search. In Proc. 5th workshop on distributed constraints reasoning, DCR-04.

  13. Meisels, A., Razgon, I., Kaplansky, E., Zivan, R. (2002). Comparing performance of distributed constraints processing algorithms. In Proc. 3th workshop on distributed constraints reasoning, DCR-02 (AAMAS-2002) (pp. 86–93).

  14. Modi, P. J., & Veloso, M (2004). Multiagent meeting scheduling with rescheduling. In Proc. of the fifth workshop on distributed constraint reasoning, DCR, CP 2004.

  15. Nissim, K., & Zivan, R. (2005). Secure DisCSP protocols—From centralized towards distributed solutions. In Proc. 6th workshop on distributed constraints reasoning, DCR-05.

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

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  17. Shanon, C. E. (1963). The mathematical theory of communication. University of Illinois Press.

  18. Silaghi, M. C., & Mitra, D. (2004). Distributed constraint satisfaction and optimization with privacy enforcement. In Proc. 3rd IC on intelligence agent technology (pp. 531–535).

  19. Silaghi, M. C., Sam-Haroud, D., Faltings, B. (2000). Asynchronous search with aggregations. In Proc. of the 17th. AAAI (pp. 917–922).

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

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  21. Solotorevsky, G., Gudes, E., Meisels, A. (1996). Modeling and solving distributed constraint satisfaction problems (DCSPs). In Constraint Processing, 96, 561–562.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Wallace, R. J., & Freuder, E. (2002). Constraint-based multi-agent meeting scheduling: Effects of agent heterogeneity on performance and privacy loss. In Proc. 3rd workshop on distributed constrait reasoning, DCR-02 (pp. 176–182).

  23. Yokoo, M., & Hirayama, K. (2000). Algorithms for distributed constraint satisfaction: A review. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 3(2), 185–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Yokoo, M., Durfee, E., Ishida, T., Kuwabara, K. (1992). Distributed constraint satisfaction for formalizing distributed problem solving. In Proc. of the 12th. DCS.

  25. Yokoo, M., Durfee, E., Ishida, T., Kuwabara, K. (1998). The distributed constraint satisfaction problem: Formalization and algorithms. IEEE Trans. Knowledge and Data Engineering, 10, 673–685.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Yokoo, M., Suzuki, K., Hirayama, K. (2005). Secure distributed constraint satisfaction: Reaching agreement without revealing private information. Artificial Intelligence, 161(1–2), 229–246.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  27. Zivan, R., & Meisels, A. (2006). Dynamic ordering for asynchronous backtracking on discsps. Constraints, 11(2, 3), 179–197.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  28. Zivan, R., & Meisels, A. (2006). Message delay and discsp search algorithms. Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence (AMAI), 46, 415–439, October.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IIIA, Ins. Inv. Intel.ligència Artificial, CSIC, Campus UAB, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain

    Ismel Brito & Pedro Meseguer

  2. Department of Computer Science, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, 84-105, Israel

    Amnon Meisels

  3. Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, 84-105, Israel

    Roie Zivan

Authors
  1. Ismel Brito
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  2. Amnon Meisels
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  3. Pedro Meseguer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  4. Roie Zivan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roie Zivan.

Additional information

Partially supported by the Spanish project TIN2006-15387-C03-01. Partially supported by the Lynn and William Frankel center for Computer Sciences and the Paul Ivanier Center for Robotics and Production Management.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Brito, I., Meisels, A., Meseguer, P. et al. Distributed constraint satisfaction with partially known constraints. Constraints 14, 199–234 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10601-008-9048-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10601-008-9048-x

Keywords