https://github.com/jberryman/fly-mis

In-browser simulation of "A Biological Solution to a Fundamental Distributed Computing Problem" by Afek et al.
https://github.com/jberryman/fly-mis

Last synced: 3 months ago
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In-browser simulation of "A Biological Solution to a Fundamental Distributed Computing Problem" by Afek et al.

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/jberryman/fly-mis
• Owner: jberryman
• Created: 2012-05-14T21:07:43.000Z (over 12 years ago)
• Default Branch: gh-pages
• Last Pushed: 2023-11-20T16:07:49.000Z (about 1 year ago)
• Last Synced: 2023-11-20T17:30:55.551Z (about 1 year ago)
• Language: JavaScript
• Size: 27.3 KB
• Stars: 6
• Watchers: 2
• Forks: 1
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

Awesome Lists containing this project

README

        
I've finished a simulation-visualization of the very cool algorithm for

generating a 

[Maximal Independant Set](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximal_independent_set) 

from "A Biological Solution to a Fundamental Distributed Computing Problem" by

Afek et al. (sorry I don't have a link to the PDF, and respect you too much to

link you to a paywall).

You can [play with it](http://jberryman.github.com/fly-mis/)

or [check out the code](https://github.com/jberryman/fly-mis) on GitHub; 

in particular, see 

["algorithm.js"](https://github.com/jberryman/fly-mis/blob/master/algorithm.js)

for the didactic implementation of the algorithm.

It uses jQuery and [Raphael.js](http://raphaeljs.com) for the visuals and

events.

## Goals for the project

1. create a fun visual simulation that can give a nice intuition for the

  algorithm

2. remain true to the algorithm as described in the paper, and to avoid anything

  novel or clever at this point

3. attempt to organize my code in such a way as to be a readable explanation of

  the algorithm as described in the paper, hiding or isolating implementation

  details

4. attempt to model the behavior of a real-world network of nodes using the OO

  abstraction, and (synchronous) events.

Trying to meet these demands was revealing. For one thing I was forced to break

up the two message exchange steps into four discrete steps which must be

performed synchronously across the network for things to work without race

conditions.

## Later

The pseudocode description is hiding some of the complexity and brittleness of

the algorithm IMHO. I'd like to take it apart and try to rip out as many of the

synchronous-network dependencies as I can, or explore how an identical but

asynchronous system behaves: give all the nodes jittery clocks and without a

coordinated start.