an ecologically inspired simulation tool for managing digital ecosystems
In this paper we present an ecologically inspired multi-agent based simulation tool for finding and analysing networks of collaborations in a digital ecosystem. Digital ecosystems are defined as open, self-organising environments inside which digital entities interact and behave autonomously for their own benefit. In this kind of systems, it is sometimes difficult to find the appropriate partners to interact with for achieving collaboration. In nature, this task has been elegantly addressed through the process of evolution by natural selection, which has resulted in various kinds of ecological interactions in which both of the species involved extract benefits from it, i.e. mutualistic interactions. By taking inspiration from this type of ecological relations we describe interactions between agents in a multi-agent based simulation tool for finding collaborative links among digital entities in a digital ecosystem; realising in this way the true metaphor of a natural ecosystem in a digital one. The simulation tool allows for the analysis of the resulting networks of interactions between the digital agents in the system using a set of tools borrowed from network theory and that have been employed in the analysis of complex systems in general and ecological networks in particular. These tools can facilitate the management of emergent digital ecosystems.
ecology digital ecosystems collaboration complex networks mutualism multi-agent systems