Herself’s Artificial Intelligence

Dr. Craig Tovey at the George Institute of Technology studied bees for years waiting for the right problem to come along that would use bee load balancing technology. Sunil Nakrani came to Dr. Tovey hoping to use his expertise in algorithm heuristics to help solve network load balancing problems.

. . . “But the bees aren’t performing a computation or strategy, they ARE the computation,” Tovey added.

Internet servers, on the other hand, are theoretically optimized for “normal” conditions, which are frequently challenged by fickle human nature. By assigning certain servers to a certain Web site, Internet hosts are establishing a system that works well under normal conditions and poorly under conditions that strain demand. When demand for one site swells, many servers sit idly by as the assigned servers reach capacity and begin shifting potential users to a lengthening queue that tries their patience and turns away potential customers.

Tovey and Nakrani set to work translating the bee strategy for these idle Internet servers. They developed a virtual “dance floor” for a network of servers. When one server receives a user request for a certain Web site, an internal advertisement (standing in a little less colorfully for the dance) is placed on the dance floor to attract any available servers. The ad’s duration depends on the demand on the site and how much revenue its users may generate. The longer an ad remains on the dance floor, the more power available servers devote to serving the Web site requests advertised.[read more Bee Strategy Helps Servers Run More Sweetly]

The servers act as either foragers or scouts. An advertisement board is used for communications. The scouts post which foragers need bandwidth on the advertisement board. Priority is given to the highest earners in the same way bees give the most attention to the flower patches with the most nectar. Importantly, it is the close nature of the problem of server load and of bees obtaining nectar that allows the algorithm to work so well.

Papers:

2nd International Workshop on the Mathematics and Algorithms of Social Insects ( excellent resource several papers are included in pdf )

From Honeybees to Internet servers: biomimicry for distributed management of internet hosting ( pdf - very readable )