Automated and dynamic multi-level negotiation framework applied to an efficient cloud provisioning

L’approvisionnement du Cloud est le processus de déploiement et de gestion des applications sur les infrastructures publiques du Cloud. Il est de plus en plus utilisé car il permet aux fournisseurs de services métiers de se concentrer sur leurs activités sans avoir à gérer et à investir dans l’infrastructure. Il comprend deux niveaux d’interaction : (1) entre les utilisateurs finaux et les fournisseurs de services pour l’approvisionnement des applications, et (2) entre les fournisseurs de services et les fournisseurs de ressources pour l’approvisionnement des ressources virtuelles. L’environnement Cloud est devenu un marché complexe où tout fournisseur veut maximiser son profit monétaire et où les utilisateurs finaux recherchent les services les plus efficaces tout en minimisant leurs coûts. Avec la croissance de la concurrence dans le Cloud, les fournisseurs de services métiers doivent assurer un approvisionnement efficace qui maximise la satisfaction de la clientèle et optimise leurs profits.Ainsi, les fournisseurs et les utilisateurs doivent être satisfaits en dépit de leurs besoins contradictoires. La négociation est une solution prometteuse qui permet de résoudre les conflits en comblant le gap entre les capacités des fournisseurs et les besoins des utilisateurs. Intuitivement, la négociation automatique des contrats (SLA) permet d’aboutir à un compromis qui satisfait les deux parties. Cependant, pour être efficace, la négociation automatique doit considérer les propriétés de l’approvisionnement du Cloud et les complexités liées à la dynamicité (dynamicité de la disponibilité des ressources, dynamicité des prix). En fait ces critères ont un impact important sur le succès de la négociation. Les principales contributions de cette thèse répondant au défi de la négociation multi-niveau dans un contexte dynamique sont les suivantes: (1) Nous proposons un modèle de négociateur générique qui considère la nature dynamique de l’approvisionnement du Cloud et son impact potentiel sur les résultats décisionnels. Ensuite, nous construisons un cadre de négociation multicouche fondé sur ce modèle en l’instanciant entre les couches du Cloud. Le cadre comprend des agents négociateurs en communication avec les modules en relation avec la qualité et le prix du service à fournir (le planificateur, le moniteur, le prospecteur de marché). (2) Nous proposons une approche de négociation bilatérale entre les utilisateurs finaux et les fournisseurs de service basée sur une approche d’approvisionnement existante. Les stratégies de négociation sont basées sur la communication avec les modules d’approvisionnement (le planificateur et l’approvisionneur de machines virtuelles) afin d’optimiser les bénéfices du fournisseur de service et de maximiser la satisfaction du client. (3) Afin de maximiser le nombre de clients, nous proposons une approche de négociation adaptative et simultanée comme extension de la négociation bilatérale. Nous proposons d’exploiter les changements de charge de travail en termes de disponibilité et de tarification des ressources afin de renégocier simultanément avec plusieurs utilisateurs non acceptés (c’est-à-dire rejetés lors de la première session de négociation) avant la création du contrat SLA. (4) Afin de gérer toute violation possible de SLA, nous proposons une approche proactive de renégociation après l’établissement de SLA. La renégociation est lancée lors de la détection d’un événement inattendu (par exemple, une panne de ressources) pendant le processus d’approvisionnement. Les stratégies de renégociation proposées visent à minimiser la perte de profit pour le fournisseur et à assurer la continuité du service pour le consommateur. Les approches proposées sont mises en œuvre et les expériences prouvent les avantages d’ajouter la (re)négociation au processus d’approvisionnement. L’utilisation de la (re)négociation améliore le bénéfice du fournisseur, le nombre de demandes acceptées et la satisfaction du client.Cloud provisioning is the process of deployment and management of applications on public cloud infrastructures. Cloud provisioning is used increasingly because it enables business providers to focus on their business without having to manage and invest in infrastructure. Cloud provisioning includes two levels of interaction: (1) between end-users and business providers for application provisioning; and (2) between business providers and resource providers for virtual resource provisioning.The cloud market nowadays is a complex environment where business providers need to maximize their monetary profit, and where end-users look for the most efficient services with the lowest prices. With the growth of competition in the cloud, business providers must ensure efficient provisioning that maximizes customer satisfaction and optimizes the providers’ profit. So, both providers and users must be satisfied in spite of their conflicting needs. Negotiation is an appealing solution to solve conflicts and bridge the gap between providers’ capabilities and users’ requirements. Intuitively, automated Service Level Agreement (SLA) negotiation helps in reaching an agreement that satisfies both parties. However, to be efficient, automated negotiation should consider the properties of cloud provisioning mainly the two interaction levels, and complexities related to dynamicity (e.g., dynamically-changing resource availability, dynamic pricing, dynamic market factors related to offers and demands), which greatly impact the success of the negotiation. The main contributions of this thesis tackling the challenge of multi-level negotiation in a dynamic context are as follows: (1) We propose a generic negotiator model that considers the dynamic nature of cloud provisioning and its potential impact on the decision-making outcome. Then, we build a multi-layer negotiation framework built upon that model by instantiating it among Cloud layers. The framework includes negotiator agents. These agents are in communication with the provisioning modules that have an impact on the quality and the price of the service to be provisioned (e.g, the scheduler, the monitor, the market prospector). (2) We propose a bilateral negotiation approach between end-users and business providers extending an existing provisioning approach. The proposed decision-making strategies for negotiation are based on communication with the provisioning modules (the scheduler and the VM provisioner) in order to optimize the business provider’s profit and maximize customer satisfaction. (3) In order to maximize the number of clients, we propose an adaptive and concurrent negotiation approach as an extension of the bilateral negotiation. We propose to harness the workload changes in terms of resource availability and pricing in order to renegotiate simultaneously with multiple non-accepted users (i.e., rejected during the first negotiation session) before the establishment of the SLA. (4) In order to handle any potential SLA violation, we propose a proactive renegotiation approach after SLA establishment. The renegotiation is launched upon detecting an unexpected event (e.g., resource failure) during the provisioning process. The proposed renegotiation decision-making strategies aim to minimize the loss in profit for the provider and to ensure the continuity of the service for the consumer. The proposed approaches are implemented and experiments prove the benefits of adding (re)negotiation to the provisioning process. The use of (re)negotiation improves the provider’s profit, the number of accepted requests, and the client’s satisfaction

Automated and dynamic multi-level negotiation framework applied to an efficient cloud provisioning

L’approvisionnement du Cloud est le processus de déploiement et de gestion des applications sur les infrastructures publiques du Cloud. Il est de plus en plus utilisé car il permet aux fournisseurs de services métiers de se concentrer sur leurs activités sans avoir à gérer et à investir dans l’infrastructure. Il comprend deux niveaux d’interaction : (1) entre les utilisateurs finaux et les fournisseurs de services pour l’approvisionnement des applications, et (2) entre les fournisseurs de services et les fournisseurs de ressources pour l’approvisionnement des ressources virtuelles. L’environnement Cloud est devenu un marché complexe où tout fournisseur veut maximiser son profit monétaire et où les utilisateurs finaux recherchent les services les plus efficaces tout en minimisant leurs coûts. Avec la croissance de la concurrence dans le Cloud, les fournisseurs de services métiers doivent assurer un approvisionnement efficace qui maximise la satisfaction de la clientèle et optimise leurs profits.Ainsi, les fournisseurs et les utilisateurs doivent être satisfaits en dépit de leurs besoins contradictoires. La négociation est une solution prometteuse qui permet de résoudre les conflits en comblant le gap entre les capacités des fournisseurs et les besoins des utilisateurs. Intuitivement, la négociation automatique des contrats (SLA) permet d’aboutir à un compromis qui satisfait les deux parties. Cependant, pour être efficace, la négociation automatique doit considérer les propriétés de l’approvisionnement du Cloud et les complexités liées à la dynamicité (dynamicité de la disponibilité des ressources, dynamicité des prix). En fait ces critères ont un impact important sur le succès de la négociation. Les principales contributions de cette thèse répondant au défi de la négociation multi-niveau dans un contexte dynamique sont les suivantes: (1) Nous proposons un modèle de négociateur générique qui considère la nature dynamique de l’approvisionnement du Cloud et son impact potentiel sur les résultats décisionnels. Ensuite, nous construisons un cadre de négociation multicouche fondé sur ce modèle en l’instanciant entre les couches du Cloud. Le cadre comprend des agents négociateurs en communication avec les modules en relation avec la qualité et le prix du service à fournir (le planificateur, le moniteur, le prospecteur de marché). (2) Nous proposons une approche de négociation bilatérale entre les utilisateurs finaux et les fournisseurs de service basée sur une approche d’approvisionnement existante. Les stratégies de négociation sont basées sur la communication avec les modules d’approvisionnement (le planificateur et l’approvisionneur de machines virtuelles) afin d’optimiser les bénéfices du fournisseur de service et de maximiser la satisfaction du client. (3) Afin de maximiser le nombre de clients, nous proposons une approche de négociation adaptative et simultanée comme extension de la négociation bilatérale. Nous proposons d’exploiter les changements de charge de travail en termes de disponibilité et de tarification des ressources afin de renégocier simultanément avec plusieurs utilisateurs non acceptés (c’est-à-dire rejetés lors de la première session de négociation) avant la création du contrat SLA. (4) Afin de gérer toute violation possible de SLA, nous proposons une approche proactive de renégociation après l’établissement de SLA. La renégociation est lancée lors de la détection d’un événement inattendu (par exemple, une panne de ressources) pendant le processus d’approvisionnement. Les stratégies de renégociation proposées visent à minimiser la perte de profit pour le fournisseur et à assurer la continuité du service pour le consommateur. Les approches proposées sont mises en œuvre et les expériences prouvent les avantages d’ajouter la (re)négociation au processus d’approvisionnement. L’utilisation de la (re)négociation améliore le bénéfice du fournisseur, le nombre de demandes acceptées et la satisfaction du client.Cloud provisioning is the process of deployment and management of applications on public cloud infrastructures. Cloud provisioning is used increasingly because it enables business providers to focus on their business without having to manage and invest in infrastructure. Cloud provisioning includes two levels of interaction: (1) between end-users and business providers for application provisioning; and (2) between business providers and resource providers for virtual resource provisioning.The cloud market nowadays is a complex environment where business providers need to maximize their monetary profit, and where end-users look for the most efficient services with the lowest prices. With the growth of competition in the cloud, business providers must ensure efficient provisioning that maximizes customer satisfaction and optimizes the providers’ profit. So, both providers and users must be satisfied in spite of their conflicting needs. Negotiation is an appealing solution to solve conflicts and bridge the gap between providers’ capabilities and users’ requirements. Intuitively, automated Service Level Agreement (SLA) negotiation helps in reaching an agreement that satisfies both parties. However, to be efficient, automated negotiation should consider the properties of cloud provisioning mainly the two interaction levels, and complexities related to dynamicity (e.g., dynamically-changing resource availability, dynamic pricing, dynamic market factors related to offers and demands), which greatly impact the success of the negotiation. The main contributions of this thesis tackling the challenge of multi-level negotiation in a dynamic context are as follows: (1) We propose a generic negotiator model that considers the dynamic nature of cloud provisioning and its potential impact on the decision-making outcome. Then, we build a multi-layer negotiation framework built upon that model by instantiating it among Cloud layers. The framework includes negotiator agents. These agents are in communication with the provisioning modules that have an impact on the quality and the price of the service to be provisioned (e.g, the scheduler, the monitor, the market prospector). (2) We propose a bilateral negotiation approach between end-users and business providers extending an existing provisioning approach. The proposed decision-making strategies for negotiation are based on communication with the provisioning modules (the scheduler and the VM provisioner) in order to optimize the business provider’s profit and maximize customer satisfaction. (3) In order to maximize the number of clients, we propose an adaptive and concurrent negotiation approach as an extension of the bilateral negotiation. We propose to harness the workload changes in terms of resource availability and pricing in order to renegotiate simultaneously with multiple non-accepted users (i.e., rejected during the first negotiation session) before the establishment of the SLA. (4) In order to handle any potential SLA violation, we propose a proactive renegotiation approach after SLA establishment. The renegotiation is launched upon detecting an unexpected event (e.g., resource failure) during the provisioning process. The proposed renegotiation decision-making strategies aim to minimize the loss in profit for the provider and to ensure the continuity of the service for the consumer. The proposed approaches are implemented and experiments prove the benefits of adding (re)negotiation to the provisioning process. The use of (re)negotiation improves the provider’s profit, the number of accepted requests, and the client’s satisfaction

Coordinating negotiations in data-intensive collaborative working environments using an agent-based model-driven platform

This paper tackles the interoperability problems of enterprise information systems by presenting a distributive model-driven platform for parallel coordination of multiple negotiations in data-intensive collaborative working environments. The proposed model was validated and verified by an industrial application scenario within the European research project H2020 C2NET (Cloud Collaborative Manufacturing Networks). This real scenario developed data-intensive collaborative and cloud-enabled tools that allow the optimisation of the supply network of manufacturing SMEs, proposing a negotiation solution based on a model-driven interoperable decentralised architecture.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Autonomous Agents for Business Process Management

Traditional approaches to managing business processes are often inadequate for large-scale organisation-wide, dynamic settings. However, since Internet and Intranet technologies have become widespread, an increasing number of business processes exhibit these properties. Therefore, a new approach is needed. To this end, we describe the motivation, conceptualization, design, and implementation of a novel agent-based business process management system. The key advance of our system is that responsibility for enacting various components of the business process is delegated to a number of autonomous problem solving agents. To enact their role, these agents typically interact and negotiate with other agents in order to coordinate their actions and to buy in the services they require. This approach leads to a system that is significantly more agile and robust than its traditional counterparts. To help demonstrate these benefits, a companion paper describes the application of our system to a real-world problem faced by British Telecom

A Review on Intelligent Agent Systems

Multi-agent system (MAS) is a common way of exploiting the potential power of agent by combining many agents in one system. Each agent in a multivalent system has incomplete information and is in capable of solving entire problem on its own. Multi-agent system offers modularity. If a problem domain is particularly complex, large and contain uncertainty, then the one way to address, it to develop a number of functional specific and modular agent that are specialized at solving various problems individually. It also consists of heterogeneous agents implemented by different tool and techniques. MAS can be defining as loosely coupled network of problem solvers that interact to solve problems that are beyond the individual capabilities or knowledge of each problem solver. These problem solvers, often ailed agent are autonomous and can be heterogeneous in nature. MAS is followed by characteristics, Future application, What to be change, problem solving agent, tools and techniques used, various architecture, multi agent applications and finally future Direction and conclusion. Various Characteristics are limited viewpoint, effectively, decentralized; computation is asynchronous, use of genetic algorithms. It has some drawbacks which must be change to make MAS more effective. In the session of problem solving of MAS, the agent performance measure contains many factors to improve it like formulation of problems, task allocation, organizations. In planning of multivalent this paper cover self-interested multivalent interactions, modeling of other agents, managing communication, effective allocation of limited resources to multiple agents with managing resources. Using of tool, to make the agent more efficient in task that are often used. The architecture o MAS followed by three layers, explore, wander, avoid obstacles respectively. Further different and task decomposition can yield various architecture like BDI (Belief Desire Intension), RETSINA. Various applications of multi agent system exist today, to solve the real-life problems, new systems are being developed two distinct categories and also many others like process control, telecommunication, air traffic control, transportation systems, commercial management, electronic commerce, entertainment applications, medical applications. The future aspect of MAS to solve problems that are too large, to allow interconnection and interoperation of multiple existing legacy systems etc

NEGOSEIO: framework for the sustainability of model-oriented enterprise interoperability

Dissertation to obtain the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering(Industrial Information Systems)This dissertation tackles the problematic of Enterprise Interoperability in the current globally connected world. The evolution of the Information and Communication Technologies has endorsed the establishment of fast, secure and robust data exchanges, promoting the development of networked solutions. This allowed the specialisation of enterprises (particularly SMEs) and favoured the development of complex and heterogeneous provider systems. Enterprises are abandoning their self-centrism and working together on the development of more complete solutions. Entire business solutions are built integrating several enterprises (e.g., in supply chains, enterprise nesting) towards a common objective. Additionally, technologies, platforms, trends, standards and regulations keep evolving and demanding enterprises compliance. This evolution needs to be continuous, and is naturally followed by a constant update of each networked enterprise’s interfaces, assets, methods and processes. This unstable environment of perpetual change is causing major concerns in both SMEs and customers as the current interoperability grounds are frail, easily leading to periods of downtime, where business is not possible. The pressure to restore interoperability rapidly often leads to patching and to the adoption of immature solutions, contributing to deteriorate even more the interoperable environment. This dissertation proposes the adoption of NEGOSEIO, a framework that tackles interoperability issues by developing strong model-based knowledge assets and promoting continuous improvement and adaptation for increasing the sustainability of interoperability on enterprise systems. It presents the research motivations and the developed framework’s main blocks, which include model-based knowledge management, collaboration service-oriented architectures implemented over a cloud-based solution, and focusing particularly on its negotiation core mechanism to handle inconsistencies and solutions for the detected interoperability problems. It concludes by validating the research and the proposed framework, presenting its application in a real business case of aerospace mission design on the European Space Agency (ESA).FP7 ENSEMBLE, UNITE, MSEE and IMAGINE project

Multiagent resource allocation in service networks

The term service network (SN) denotes a network of software services in which complex software applications are provided to customers by aggregating multiple elementary services. These networks are based on the service-oriented computing (SOC) paradigm, which defines the fundamental technical concepts for software services over electronic networks, e.g., Web services and, most recently, Cloud services. For the provision of software services to customers, software service providers (SPs) have to allocate their scarce computational resources (i.e., hardware and software) of a certain quality to customer requests. The SOC paradigm facilitates interoperability over organizational boundaries by representing business relationships on the software system level. Composite software services aggregate multiple software services into software applications. This aggregation is denoted as service composition. The loose coupling of services leads to SNs as dynamic entities with changing interdependencies between services. For composite software services, these dependencies exist across SN tiers; they result from the procurement of services, which are themselves utilized to produce additional services, and constitute a major problem for resource allocation in SNs. If these dependencies are not considered, the fulfillment of agreements may become unaccomplishable (overcommitment). Hence, the consideration of service dependencies is crucial for the allocation of service providers resources to fulfill customer requests in SNs. However, existing resource allocation methods, which could consider these dependencies -- such as combinatorial auctions with a central auctioneer for the whole SN -- are not applicable, since there are no central coordinating entities in SNs. The application of an allocation mechanism that does not consider these dependencies might negatively affect the actual service delivery; results are penalty payments as well as a damage to the reputation of the providers. This research is conducted in accordance to the design science paradigm in information system research. It is a problem-solving paradigm, which targets the construction and evaluation of IT artifacts. The objectives of this research are to develop and evaluate an allocation protocol, which can consider multi-tier service dependencies without the existence of central coordinating entities. Therefore, an interaction protocol engineering (IPE) perspective is applied to solve the problem of multi-tier dependencies in resource allocation. This approach provides a procedure model for designing interaction protocols for multiagent systems, and is closely related to the well-established area of communication protocol engineering. Automated resource allocation in SNs is analyzed in this research by representing the actors as autonomous software agents in the software system. The actors delegate their objectives to their software agents, which conduct the negotiations for service provision on their behalf. Thus, these agents communicate concerning the resource allocation; in this process, the sequence of communication interactions is crucial to the problem addressed. Interaction protocols define a structured exchange of defined messages between agents; they facilitate agent conversations. When multiple agents have to reach agreements by negotiation and bargaining, such as in case with allocating scarce resources, game theory provides means to formalize and analyze the most rational choice of actions for the interacting agents. Based on a formal framework for resource allocation in SNs, this research first performs a game-theoretic problem analysis; it is concerned with the existence, as well as the complexity of computing optimal allocations. In addition, Nash equilibria are analyzed for optimal allocations. Second, a distributed, auction-based allocation protocol, which prevents overcommitments and guarantees socially optimal allocations for single customer requests under certain assumptions, is proposed. Therefore, a game-theoretic model and an operationizable specification of the protocol are presented. Third, it is formally verified that the protocol enables multi-tier resource allocation and avoids overcommitments by proofs for the game-theoretic model and by model checking for the interaction protocol specification; using the model checker Spin, safety properties like the absence of deadlock are as well formally verified as the protocol enabling multi-tier resource allocation. Fourth, the efficacy and the benefits of the proposed protocol are demonstrated by multiagent simulation for concurrent customers. The experimental evaluation provides evidence of the protocols efficiency compared to the socially optimal allocation as a centralized benchmark in different settings, e.g., network topologies and different bidding policies.Der Begriff Service Network (SN) bezeichnet ein Netzwerk von Software-Services, in dem komplexe Software-Applikationen durch Aggregation mehrerer elementarer Services für Kunden bereitgestellt werden. Diese Netzwerke basieren auf dem Paradigma des Service-oriented Computing, welches die grundlegenden technischen Konzepte für Software-Services über elektronische Netzwerke bereitstellt, d.h. Web Services und zuletzt Cloud-Computing. Für die Bereitstellung von Software-Services für Kunden müssen Software-Anbieter ihre knappen Ressourcen (d.h. Hardware und Software) einer bestimmten Qualität zu Kundenanfragen allozieren, also entsprechende Ressourcen reservieren, um Software-Services in der vereinbarten Dienstgüte bereitzustellen. Zusammengesetzte Software-Services aggregieren mehrere Software-Services zu Software-Applikations-Services. Diese Aggregation wird als Service-Komposition bezeichnet. Die lose Kopplung von Services macht SNs zu dynamischen Entitäten mit sich verändernden Interdependenzen zwischen den Services. Für zusammengesetzte Software-Services existieren solche Abhängigkeiten über mehrere SN-Stufen; sie ergeben sich durch die Beschaffung von Services, welche für die Produktion von weiteren Services verwendet werden, und stellen ein Hauptproblem bei der Ressourcenallokation in SN dar. Werden diese Abhängigkeiten nicht berücksichtigt, kann die Erfüllung von Vereinbarungen undurchführbar werden (overcommitment). Daher ist die Berücksichtigung von Service-Abhängigkeiten bei der Allokation von Ressourcen der Service-Anbieter für die Erfüllung der Kundenanfragen in SNs entscheidend. Existierende Methoden der Ressourcenallokation, welche diese Abhängigkeiten berücksichtigen könnten -- wie kombinatorische Auktionen mit einem zentralen Auktionator für das gesamte SN -- sind jedoch nicht anwendbar, da in SNs keine zentralen Koordinationsentitäten existieren. Der Einsatz eines Allokationsmechanismus, welcher diese Abhängigkeiten nicht berücksichtigt, kann die konkrete Service-Erbringung negativ beeinflussen und somit in Strafzahlungen und einer Beeinträchtigung der Reputation der Service-Anbieter resultieren. Die vorliegende Forschungsarbeit wird in Übereinstimmung mit dem Design Science-Paradigma durchgeführt. Dabei handelt es sich um ein Problemlösungs-Paradigma, welches die Konstruktion und Evaluation von IT-Artefakten zum Ziel hat. Ziel dieser Forschungsarbeit ist die Entwicklung und Evaluation eines Allokationsprotokolls, welches mehrstufige Service-Abhängigkeiten ohne die Existenz zentraler, koordinierender Entitäten berücksichtigen kann. Zu diesem Zweck wird eine Interaction-Protocol-Engineering (IPE)-Perspektive eingenommen, um das Problem mehrstufiger Abhängigkeiten bei der Ressourcenallokation zu lösen. Dieser Ansatz stellt ein Vorgehensmodell für den Entwurf von Interaktionsprotokollen für Multiagentensysteme zur Verfügung. Diese Forschungsarbeit analysiert die automatisierte Ressourcenallokation in SNs durch die Repräsentation der Akteure als autonome Softwareagenten im Softwaresystem. Die Akteure delegieren ihre Ziele an ihre Softwareagenten, welche in deren Auftrag die Verhandlung für die Service-Erbringung durchführen. Somit kommunizieren diese Softwareagenten bezüglich der Ressourcenallokationen; dabei ist die Abfolge der Interaktionen für das adressierte Problem elementar. Interaktionsprotokolle definieren einen strukturierten Austausch bestimmter Nachrichten zwischen Agenten. Wenn mehrere Agenten Vereinbarungen durch Verhandlungen treffen müssen, wie im Falle der Allokation knapper Ressourcen, stellt die Spieltheorie Methoden bereit, um rationale Entscheidungen der Aktionen für interagierende Agenten zu analysieren. Basierend auf einem formalen Modell für Ressourcenallokation in SN führt diese Forschungsarbeit eine spieltheoretische Problemanalyse durch. Hierbei werden insbesondere mehrstufige Abhängigkeiten von Vereinbarungen berücksichtigt. Die Problemanalyse befaßt sich mit der Existenz sowie der Komplexität der Berechnung optimaler Allokationen. Es wird ein verteiltes, Auktions-basiertes Allokationsprotokoll, welches overcommitments vermeidet, vorgeschlagen. Basierend auf dem spieltheoretischen Modell wird gezeigt, daß das vorgeschlagene Protokoll overcommitments vermeidet und sozial optimale Allokationen für einzelne Kundenanfragen unter bestimmten Annahmen garantiert. Darüber hinaus wird der Modellprüfer Spin verwendet, um bestimmte formale Eigenschaften der Beschreibung des Protokolls zu beweisen. Abschließend werden die Anwendbarkeit und der Nutzen des vorgeschlagenen Protokolls mittels Multiagentensimulation demonstriert. In den Simulationsexperimenten wird die Effizienz des Protokolls mit der optimalen Allokation als zentralisiertes Benchmark in unterschiedlichen Einstellungen (z.B. Netzwerktopologien oder Anzahl von Kunden- und Anbieter-Agenten) für verschiedene Bietrichtlinien für Anbieter verglichen

Incorporating an Element of Negotiation into a Service-Oriented Broker Application

The Software as a Service (SaaS) model is a service-based model in which a desired service is assembled, delivered and consumed on demand. The IBHIS broker is a ‘proof of concept’ demonstration of SaaS which is based on services that deliver data. IBHIS has addressed a number of challenges for several aspects of servicebased software, especially the concept of a ‘broker service’ and service negotiation that is only used in establishing end-user access authorizations. This thesis investigates and develops an extended form of service-based broker, called CAPTAIN (Care Planning Through Auction-based Information Negotiation). It extends the concepts and role of the broker as used in IBHIS, and in particular, it extends the service negotiation function in order to demonstrate a full range of service characteristics. CAPTAIN uses the idea of the integrated care plan from healthcare to provide a case study. A care planner acting on behalf of a patient uses the broker to negotiate with providers to produce the integrated care plan for the patient with the broker and the providers agreeing on the terms and conditions relating to the supply of the services. We have developed a ‘proof of concept’ service-oriented broker architecture for CAPTAIN that includes planning, negotiation and service-based software models to provide a flexible care planning system. The CAPTAIN application has been evaluated that focuses on three features: functions, data access and negotiation. The CAPTAIN broker performs as planned, to produce the integrated care plan. The providers’ data sources are accessed to read and write data records during and after service negotiation. The negotiation model permits the broker to interact with the providers to produce an adaptable plan, based on the client’s needs. The primary outcome is an extendable service-oriented broker architecture that can enable more scalable and flexible distributed information management by adding interaction with the data sources

Service-oriented middleware for managing inter-enterprise collaborations

Peer reviewe

Software Agents for Electronic Marketplaces: Current and Future Research Directions

The premise of software agents to define the structural and operational models of the virtual marketplace of the future can account for the increased interest regarding their application in areas where they can add substantial value in terms of automation and functionality. At the heart of such a marketplace rests an ontology modeling the domain upon which a nucleus of agent-based services can be constructed. Negotiation services hold the dominant position in terms of the attention they have received in research. Complementary to them, but no less important, are the advising services representing support functionality that is required throughout the cycle of a deal; from the expressed intention of the two parties to eventual maturity and closure. In this paper we focus on research trends and on their possible future development for ontologies and the above service categories emphasizing on the role of software agents in this context. A review and analysis of past and present works helps to formulate sets of questions that future research will seek to address