Scientists call nature's IT department

We have all been there. Tempers frayed, hair pulled and voices raised - all because of a crashing computer. Well, computer scientists now say the answer to your moody system could lie with the humble firefly

 
With the increasing complexity of modern computer and network technology, often even the simplest request can end in a hung computer and rising blood-pressure levels. The BISON project has been set up to solve this problem by applying tricks used by ants, fireflies and even single cells.

Dr Ozalp Babaoglu of the University of Bologna and coordinator of the project, said: “Complexity in computing is already a problem, and traditional methods are no longer adequate to address the problems, and it's going to get worse as the internet becomes increasingly complex. Biological systems, on the other hand, are incredibly resilient and amazingly robust, so we're taking inspiration from a system that we know works.”

The researchers have developed a synchronicity protocol inspired by fireflies. Synchronicity is important for the execution of certain functions in a computer network. Fireflies very quickly synchronise their light emission, rather like clapping in an audience, and Babaoglu says it could become the basis for developing a heartbeat on the internet.

The team also developed Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) - a computing scheme inspired by the way ants follow paths to find the shortest route to food - to help information transfer within computer networks. In the computing paradigm, tiny packets of data, called ants, are sent out to find the most efficient routing choice. “We were surprised that their performance was so good. We expected to lose performance, but our protocols are comparable to what's available today,” explained Dr Babaoglu.

rebooting could be a thing of the past thanks to fireflies