Information Logistics. Decentralized Approaches of Information Allocation in Information Exchange Networks

Book excerpt: The use of modern planning and optimization systems for process synchronization in value networks requires the optimal information exchange between the entities involved. The central focus of Sven Grolik's study is the development of efficient mechanisms for the coordination of information allocation by the example of interconnected transportation marketplaces. Unlike traditional information allocation algorithms, the algorithms developed in his analysis are based on update mechanisms which maintain a weak consistency of replicated information in the network. Sven Grolik shows that these algorithms enable savings concerning the update costs as well as increase the performance within the network, but at the same time guarantee compliance with quality of service levels concerning the currency of information. The focus of this work is the development of decentralized, online algorithms which make a logically distributed computation possible on the basis of local information. The development of these innovative algorithms is based on approaches of multi-agent system theory as well as distributed simulated annealing techniques.