Simulating Emergent Properties of Coordination in Maude: the Collective Sort Case

Recent coordination languages and models are moving towards the application of techniques coming from the research context of complex systems: adaptivity and self-organization are exploited in order to tackle the openness, dynamism and unpredictability of today's distributed systems. In this area, systems are to be described using stochastic models, and simulation is a valuable tool both for analysis and design. Accordingly, in this work we focused on modelling and simulating emergent properties of coordination techniques.We first develop a framework acting as a general-purpose engine for simulating stochastic transition systems, built as a library for the Maude term rewriting system. We then evaluate this tool to a coordination problem called collective sort, where autonomous agents move tuples across different tuple spaces according to local criteria, and resulting in the emergence of the complete clustering property.     

Array thinning by using antennas in a Fabry-Perot cavity for gain enhancement

A Fabry-Perot cavity (FPC) between a ground plane and a partially reflective surface (PRS) is used here to design array antennas with large distance between the radiating elements. This configuration provides some advantages: i) a reduction of the number of array elements to achieve high directivity; ii) large space between contiguous elements that may host a bulky feeding network as required for dual polarization or active antennas; iii) small coupling and easy feeding network designs because of the smaller number of elements with larger inter-element distance. We show that when designing the FPC antenna a frequency shift of the gain maximum may occur, especially in this sparse array configuration. We also show the existence of preferred distances between elements that controls both the directivity and the side lobe level, and how the presence of the FPC and the relaxed requirement of the interelement distance result in a lower interelement coupling. The presented dual polarized antenna comprises two interleaved 2 /spl times/ 2 arrays placed in a 2-layer FPC, and exhibits a 19 dBi gain and 30 dB of isolation between the two ports over an operating bandwidth of approximately 5.7%, i.e., typical for patch antennas.     

An efficient full-wave method of moments analysis for RLSA antennas

Here a computationally efficient method of moments (MoM) formulation is presented for the full-wave analysis and design of radial line slot antennas (RLSAs). The method efficiency is based on an ad-hoc representation of the internal problem (electrically large circular cavity) Green's function, which is split into the sum of a parallel plate waveguide contribution and a rim effect contribution, expanded in terms of radial modes. The convergence rate of the proposed Green's function expansion is investigated both analytically and numerically with the aid of some examples. Furthermore, comparisons with a commercial general purpose MoM software were performed on a complete RLSA to demonstrate the accuracy and the efficiency of our approach.