| Abstract: | In this paper it is shown, by means of simulation, that interesting time behavior is observed for damaged and overloaded networks, and that adaptive, decentralized intelligence can have a dramatic influence on the overall network performance. The time behavior of nonhierarchical networks is modeled by a system of nonlinear difference equations among global variables, and bistability is shown to exist. Using a simple adaptive control mechanism, it is shown that, depending upon the value of a certain network variable, either limit cycle or steady state behavior results. A few ideas are discussed for applications of nonhierarchical communications to cellular automata and to decision-making systems. |
