Self-Repair Networks

This
book describes the struggle to introduce a mechanism that enables
next-generation information systems to maintain themselves. Our generation
observed the birth and growth of information systems, and the Internet in
particular. Surprisingly information systems are quite different from
conventional (energy, material-intensive) artificial systems, and rather
resemble biological systems (information-intensive systems). Many artificial
systems are designed based on (Newtonian) physics assuming that every element
obeys simple and static rules; however, the experience of the Internet suggests
a different way of designing where growth cannot be controlled but
self-organized with autonomous and selfish agents. This book suggests using game
theory, a mechanism design in
particular, for designing next-generation information systems which will be
self-organized by collective acts with autonomous components. The challenge of mapping a probability to time appears repeatedly in many forms throughout
this book.

The book contains interdisciplinary
research encompassing game theory, complex systems, reliability theory and
particle physics. All devoted to its central theme: what happens if
systems self-repair themselves?