Sharing in distributed environments: the mutual exclusion problem- the moving ant model

The mutual exclusion algorithm is a well established concept and problem in the field of distributed computing and systems. The application of mutual exclusion for distributed environments which does not involve a shared memory has largely been a point of study. When such algorithms are applied to a distributed environment high over-head communicational costs are normally seen. Communicational costs tend to explode when the mutual exclusion algorithm is applied to large networks which have a high number of nodes involved. We in this analysis model a moving ant based model for the mutual exclusion algorithm designed for large scale ad-hoc and sensor networks that effectively saves high communication overheads and yields appreciable performance. The moving ant-based model is a highly distributed control system wherein feedback components aggregated for a large number of distinct entities ensure the achievement of adaptation at the global level