Comparative relative strength in artificial immune systems: system wellness

This work focuses on an aspect of artificial immune systems not yet addressed by research, and demonstrates that as immune system metaphors grow and evolve in complexity, overall network health can play a role in the vulnerability and strength of the network. Recent works have suggested the analogous role of the immune system to computer security systems. As artificial immune system research progresses, a growing number of components of the human immune system have been incorporated, raising opportunities for further research and understanding. In particular, this work focuses on the development and testing of an agent-based model of a complex network to demonstrate and evaluate the concept of comparative relative strength (CRS) in artificial immune systems. CRS stems from a comparison of the overall strength of the host entity of an immune system to individual agent strength, this case in an artificial immune system (AIS). This principle has been employed to facilitate selection in a model of an AIS. Using the development and testing of an agent-based model of a complex network to demonstrate and evaluate the concept of comparative relative strength (CRS), this research introduces this concept.