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Invited Talk: From Parallel Clusters to Hyper-distributed applications: Programming Swarms with COLMENA
DescriptionScientific applications have long been a driving force in parallel and distributed computing, as their ever-growing demand for performance, scalability, and data handling has consistently pushed the boundaries of computational technologies. Traditionally, these applications have been executed within a single high-performance computing (HPC) cluster, relying on tightly coupled parallelism and localized resource management. In the recent years, this landscape has changed dramatically. Increasing data volumes, the emergence of edge and IoT devices, and the growing reliance on cloud services have collectively transformed the execution model of scientific workloads. Today, applications are no longer confined to isolated clusters but increasingly span large-scale, geo-distributed infrastructures that extend from sensors at the edge to powerful HPC systems in the cloud. This emerging environment—often referred to as the Continuum—presents unique challenges in heterogeneity, dynamism, and coordination, while also offering opportunities for pervasive, resilient, and efficient scientific computing.
In this talk, we present COLMENA, a programming model tailored for swarm computing within the Continuum. At its core, the COLMENA runtime establishes a collaborative, peer-to-peer environment where each device operates as an Autonomous Agent (ANT), fully aware of both its computational resources and its contextual circumstances. The programming model offers abstractions to define the roles and functionalities that compose an application, as well as the mechanisms through which these roles interact—whether by exchanging messages, sharing data, or distributing computational workload. During execution, ANTs can make autonomous or consensus-based decisions on which roles to assume, dynamically adapting to the application’s requirements. This decentralized approach allows COLMENA to unlock the full potential of the Continuum while maintaining ease of programmability, flexibility, and scalability.
In this talk, we present COLMENA, a programming model tailored for swarm computing within the Continuum. At its core, the COLMENA runtime establishes a collaborative, peer-to-peer environment where each device operates as an Autonomous Agent (ANT), fully aware of both its computational resources and its contextual circumstances. The programming model offers abstractions to define the roles and functionalities that compose an application, as well as the mechanisms through which these roles interact—whether by exchanging messages, sharing data, or distributing computational workload. During execution, ANTs can make autonomous or consensus-based decisions on which roles to assume, dynamically adapting to the application’s requirements. This decentralized approach allows COLMENA to unlock the full potential of the Continuum while maintaining ease of programmability, flexibility, and scalability.