Experiments in designing computational economies for mobile users

Abstract Distributed operating systems provide users with transparent access to network-wide resources. As changes occur to network resources, or as user locations and preferences evolve, the system must be able to adapt by reallocating, replicating, or moving its resources. We explore a market-based approach to resource allocation in such environments, and describe initial experiments in designing and building computational markets for distributed operating system resources. We focus on the problem of redistributing network file allocations for a mobile user population in order to improve locality and accessibility.