How can I build resilient, quantized consensus in a multi-hop agent network?
Resilient Quantized Consensus in Multi-Hop Relay Networks
This paper proposes a new algorithm, QMW-MSR, for achieving resilient consensus in a multi-agent system where agents communicate through a network and some agents might be malicious or Byzantine, i.e., intentionally trying to disrupt the consensus process. The algorithm uses quantized communication and multi-hop relaying. This means agents exchange integer values and can communicate indirectly through intermediaries. The paper defines graph conditions that guarantee the normal agents will eventually agree on a common value, even with malicious or Byzantine actors in the network, both with synchronous and asynchronous communication, and with or without message delays.
Key points for LLM-based multi-agent systems:
- Resilience to malicious/Byzantine agents: QMW-MSR offers a mechanism for building multi-agent systems that can tolerate misbehaving agents, a crucial consideration when incorporating untrusted LLMs.
- Quantized communication: This approach reduces communication overhead, which is relevant for LLM-based agents that might exchange large amounts of textual data.
- Multi-hop relaying: This allows for flexible communication patterns and could be used to design complex interaction protocols between LLM-based agents, even if they are not directly connected.
- Asynchronous communication with delays: QMW-MSR's ability to handle asynchronous communication and delays reflects the reality of distributed systems and is directly applicable to real-world LLM-based multi-agent applications.
- Exact consensus: The algorithm guarantees eventual agreement on a precise value, rather than just an approximate range, offering stronger guarantees for LLM-based agents that might need to coordinate on specific actions or outputs.