Architecture

The architectural style that we are currently investigating is based on the PopOrg model of organization. It is best illustrated by the figure shown below, where:

• • • A = agent

    • R = social role

    • O = organizational unit

    • SS = social system

    • upward dashed arrow = implemenation relation

    • horizontal closed head arrow = exchange process

    • horizontal open head arrow = access

• Notice that:

  • the boxes O and SS are assumed to possibly be internally structured, in a hierachical recursive way, so that the basic form of O is essentiall an R, and the basic form of an SS is essentially an O;

  • the internal levels of the organization structure are respectively called:

    • micro-organization level: the level of the social roles R;

    • meso-organization level: the level of the organizational units O;

    • macro-organization level: the level of the social systems SS;

  • the implementation relation is properly defined only if the processes defining both the internal and the external functionings of the implemented component are homomorphic process images of the network of exchange processes of the implementer components;

  • the material environment may be either physical or simulated;

  • the ideological structure encompasses all types of symbolic structures produced by the agent society as elements of its culture (ideological systems, legal orders, etc.);

  • the operational structure encompassing all the exchange processes (of both the organization and the population levels) is called the core operational structure of the architecture;

  • the dashed trapezoid box exemplifies the structural location of a complete organizational unit (internal recursive structure of O implicit in the figure).

  • It pictures the current state of the art in the organization of multiagent systems, in the sense that the dashed trapezoid box characterizes the architectural level at which operate the current organization models, for the current organization models of multiagent systems operate at an architectural level where one multiagent system = one organizational unit;

  • the problem of the persistence of the whole structure shown in the figure, while the agent society operates, is the persistence problem of any agent society implemented according to this PopOrg architectural style.