A Computational Multiagent Model of Bioluminescent Bacteria for the Emergence of Self-Sustainable and Self-Maintaining Artificial Wireless Networks

Abstract

Biology is a rich source of inspiration in designing digital artifacts capable of autonomous, cooperative and distributed behaviors. Particularly, conceptual links can be established between (1) communication networks and (2) colonies of bacteria that communicate using chemical molecules. The goal of this paper is to propose a computational multiagent model of an interspecies bacterial communication system, termed quorum sensing, and analyze its self-sustainability and its self-maintaining ability to cooperatively form artificial wireless networks. Specifically, we propose a bottom-up agent-based approach combined with Ordinary Differential Equations, which abstract the intracellular dynamics, such as a proposed metabolism model that serves as a basis underlying self-sustainable networks. Results show that artificial bacterial cells have regeneration abilities in the light of random cell death and selected area for cell death, and a metabolism allowing them to exploit their own produced energy to cooperate at the population level to exhibit near-optimal self-organizing light-producing behaviors. The resulting artificial networks display several beneficial properties and could be used for the emergence of resistant wireless network topologies without the use of overhead messages.