Parallel Simulation of Multi-agent Systems Using Terracotta

Abstract

This paper describes a novel approach to parallel simulation of complex multi-agent systems which is based on actors and the Java middleware Terracotta. The approach aims to an exploitation of the computing power of modern multicore machines. Terracotta was chosen because it transparently allows to cluster the JVM. The paper discusses design and implementation aspects of the approach, and demonstrates the achievable execution performance through the parallel simulation of a scalable multi-agent system based on the predator/prey model.