1 Introduction ¶ Chaosnet is a local network , that is, a system for communication among a group of computers located within one or two kilometers of each other. The name Chaosnet refers to the lack of any centralized control element in this network. Chaosnet was originally developed in 1975 by the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the internal communications medium of the Lisp Machine system [ CHINUAL , AIM444 ]. It has since come to be used to link a variety of machines around the Institute. Chaosnets also exist at several other universities and research laboratories. The Lisp Machine system is a multi-processor in which each active user is assigned a "personal" computer consisting of a medium-scale processor, a suitable amount of memory, and a swapping disk. Files are stored in a central file-system accessed through Chaosnet.…