Distributed Systems

Distributed systems exhibit many subtle features lacking in their more traditional centralized counterparts. Examples include local interactions that must achieve global ends (like the global consistency of locally-stored data); security and restriction of information flow; efficiency and robustness when components fail or move (as in networks of sensors or of mobile phones); and adaptability to environmental duress. Theories of concurrency provide partial foundations and tools. Applications are to networks of environmental sensors, mobile phones and multi-agent systems.