Mechanisms for Automated Negotiation in State Oriented Domains

This paper lays part of the groundwork for a domain theory of negotiation, that is, a way of classifying interactions so that it is clear, given a domain, which negotiation mechanisms and strategies are appropriate. We define State Oriented Domains, a general category of interaction. Necessary and sufficient conditions for cooperation are outlined. We use the notion of worth in an altered definition of utility, thus enabling agreements in a wider class of joint-goal reachable situations. An approach is offered for conflict resolution, and it is shown that even in a conflict situation, partial cooperative steps can be taken by interacting agents (that is, agents in fundamental conflict might still agree to cooperate up to a certain point). A Unified Negotiation Protocol (UNP) is developed that can be used in all types of encounters. It is shown that in certain borderline cooperative situations, a partial cooperative agreement (i.e., one that does not achieve all agents' goals) might be preferred by all agents, even though there exists a rational agreement that would achieve all their goals. Finally, we analyze cases where agents have incomplete information on the goals and worth of other agents. First we consider the case where agents' goals are private information, and we analyze what goal declaration strategies the agents might adopt to increase their utility. Then, we consider the situation where the agents' goals (and therefore stand-alone costs) are common knowledge, but the worth they attach to their goals is private information. We introduce two mechanisms, one 'strict', the other 'tolerant', and analyze their affects on the stability and efficiency of negotiation outcomes.Comment: See http://www.jair.org/ for any accompanying file

Homo Datumicus : correcting the market for identity data

Effective digital identity systems offer great economic and civic potential. However, unlocking this potential requires dealing with social, behavioural, and structural challenges to efficient market formation. We propose that a marketplace for identity data can be more efficiently formed with an infrastructure that provides a more adequate representation of individuals online. This paper therefore introduces the ontological concept of Homo Datumicus: individuals as data subjects transformed by HAT Microservers, with the axiomatic computational capabilities to transact with their own data at scale. Adoption of this paradigm would lower the social risks of identity orientation, enable privacy preserving transactions by default and mitigate the risks of power imbalances in digital identity systems and markets

Formal analysis of the communication of probabilistic knowledge

This paper discusses questions about communication of probabilistic knowledge in the light of current theories of agent communication. It will argue that there is a semantic gap between these theories and research areas related to probabilistic knowledge representation and communication, that creates very serious theoretical problems if agents that reason probabilistically try to use the communication framework provided by these theories. The paper proposes a new formal model, which generalizes current agent communication theories (at least the standard FIPA version of these theories) to handle probabilistic knowledge communication. We propose a new probabilistic logic as the basis for the model and new communication principles and communicative acts to support this kind of communication.IFIP International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Theory and Practice - Agents 1Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

A comparative study of game theoretic and evolutionary models for software agents

Most of the existing work in the study of bargaining behaviour uses techniques from game theory. Game theoretic models for bargaining assume that players are perfectly rational and that this rationality in common knowledge. However, the perfect rationality assumption does not hold for real-life bargaining scenarios with humans as players, since results from experimental economics show that humans find their way to the best strategy through trial and error, and not typically by means of rational deliberation. Such players are said to be boundedly rational. In playing a game against an opponent with bounded rationality, the most effective strategy of a player is not the equilibrium strategy but the one that is the best reply to the opponent's strategy. The evolutionary model provides a means for studying the bargaining behaviour of boundedly rational players. This paper provides a comprehensive comparison of the game theoretic and evolutionary approaches to bargaining by examining their assumptions, goals, and limitations. We then study the implications of these differences from the perspective of the software agent developer

Quantum Cryptography in Practice

BBN, Harvard, and Boston University are building the DARPA Quantum Network, the world's first network that delivers end-to-end network security via high-speed Quantum Key Distribution, and testing that Network against sophisticated eavesdropping attacks. The first network link has been up and steadily operational in our laboratory since December 2002. It provides a Virtual Private Network between private enclaves, with user traffic protected by a weak-coherent implementation of quantum cryptography. This prototype is suitable for deployment in metro-size areas via standard telecom (dark) fiber. In this paper, we introduce quantum cryptography, discuss its relation to modern secure networks, and describe its unusual physical layer, its specialized quantum cryptographic protocol suite (quite interesting in its own right), and our extensions to IPsec to integrate it with quantum cryptography.Comment: Preprint of SIGCOMM 2003 pape

Enabling cooperative and negotiated energy exchange in remote communities

Energy poverty at the household level is defined as the lack of access to electricity and reliance on the traditional use of biomass for cooking, and is a serious hindrance to economic and social development. It is estimated that 1.3 billion people live without access to electricity and almost 2.7 billion people rely on biomass for cooking, a majority of whom live in small communities scattered over vast areas of land (mostly in the Sub-Saharan Africa and the developing Asia). Access to electricity is a serious issue as a number of socio-economic factors, from health to education, rely heavily on electricity. Recent initiatives have sought to provide these remote communities with off-grid renewable microgeneration infrastructure such as solar panels, and electric batteries. At present, these resources (i.e., microgeneration and storage) are operated in isolation for individual home needs, which results in an inefficient and costly use of resources, especially in the case of electric batteries which are expensive and have a limited number of charging cycles. We envision that by connecting homes together in a remote community and enabling energy exchange between them, this microgeneration infrastructure can be used more efficiently. Against this background, in this thesis we investigate the methods and processes through which homes in a remote community can exchange energy. We note that remote communities lack general infrastructure such as power supply systems (e.g., the electricity grid) or communication networks (e.g., the internet), that is taken for granted in urban areas. Taking these challenges into account and using insights from knowledge domains such game theory and multi-agent systems, we present two solutions: (i) a cooperative energy exchange solution and (ii) a negotiated energy exchange solution, in order to enable energy exchange in remote communities.Our cooperative energy exchange solution enables connected homes in a remote community to form a coalition and exchange energy. We show that such coalition a results in two surpluses: (i) reduction in the overall battery usage and (ii) reduction in the energy storage losses. Each agents's contribution to the coalition is calculated by its Shapley value or, by its approximated Shapley value in case of large communities. Using real world data, we empirically evaluate our solution to show that energy exchange: (i) can reduce the need for battery charging (by close to 65%) in a community; compared with when they do not exchange energy, and (ii) can improve the efficient use of energy (by up to 10% under certain conditions) compared with no energy exchange. Our negotiated energy exchange solution enables agents to negotiate directly with each other and reach energy exchange agreements. Negotiation over energy exchange is an interdependent multi-issue type of negotiation that is regarded as very difficult and complex. We present a negotiation protocol, named Energy Exchange Protocol (EEP), which simplifies this negotiation by restricting the offers that agents can make to each other. These restrictions are engineered such that agents, negotiation under the EEP, have a strategy profile in subgame perfect Nash equilibrium. We show that our negotiation protocol is tractable, concurrent, scalable and leads to Pareto-optimal outcomes (within restricted the set of offers) in a decentralised manner. Using real world data, we empirically evaluate our protocol and show that, in this instance, a society of agents can: (i) improve the overall utilities by 14% and (ii) reduce their overall use of the batteries by 37%, compared to when they do not exchange energy

An axiomatic design framework to design interoperable buyer–supplier dyads

Cooperation arrangements in the form of buyer–supplier dyads are a way that companies have found to deal with the current competitive environment. Despite the contributions in the interoperability literature, a cohesive framework is lacking that would allow the systematization of solutions for interoperable problems in such cooperation. Therefore, we propose a framework for systematically detail interoperability issues and to provide solutions that fit business conditions.Through a case study conducted on an automotive dyad, it is possible to achieve a better interoperable scenario, by systematically addressing the issues and providing solutions that comply with the AD independence axiom.authorsversionpublishe