Approaches to suggest potential agreements: Perspectives of mediation with incomplete information

In bilateral Negotiation Analysis, the literature often co nsiders the case of complete information. In this context, since the negotiators know the value functions of both parties, it is not difficult to calculate the Pareto frontier and the Pareto efficient soluti ons for the negotiation. Thus rational negotiators can reach agreement on this frontier. However, these approaches are not applied in practice when the parties do not have complete information. The research question of our work is “It is possible to help negotiators achieving an efficient soluti on if they do not have complete information regarding the different parameters of the model?”. We propos e to obtain information regarding the preferences of negotiators during the negotiation process , in order to be able to propose alternatives close to the Pareto frontier. During this work we will presen t three approaches to help a mediator proposing a better solution than the compromise the negotia tors have reached or are close to reach

Automated Negotiation Among Web Services

Software as a service is well accepted software deployment and distribution model that is grown exponentially in the last few years. One of the biggest benefits of SaaS is the automated composition of these services in a composite system. It allows users to automatically find and bind these services, as to maximize the productivity of their composed systems, meeting both functional and non-functional requirements. In this paper we present a framework for modeling the dependency relationship of different Quality of Service parameters of a component service. Our proposed approach considers the different invocation patterns of component services in the system and models the dependency relationship for optimum values of these QoS parameters. We present a service composition framework that models the dependency relations ship among component services and uses the global QoS for service selection

Complex negotiations in multi-agent systems

Los sistemas multi-agente (SMA) son sistemas distribuidos donde entidades autónomas llamadas agentes, ya sean humanos o software, persiguen sus propios objetivos. El paradigma de SMA ha sido propuesto como la aproximación de modelo apropiada para aplicaciones como el comercio electrónico, los sistemas multi-robot, aplicaciones de seguridad, etc. En la comunidad de SMA, la visión de sistemas multi-agente abiertos, donde agentes heterogéneos pueden entrar y salir del sistema dinámicamente, ha cobrado fuerza como paradigma de modelado debido a su relación conceptual con tecnologías como la Web, la computación grid, y las organizaciones virtuales. Debido a la heterogeneidad de los agentes, y al hecho de dirigirse por sus propios objetivos, el conflicto es un fenómeno candidato a aparecer en los sistemas multi-agente. En los últimos años, el término tecnologías del acuerdo ha sido usado para referirse a todos aquellos mecanismos que, directa o indirectamente, promueven la resolución de conflictos en sistemas computacionales como los sistemas multi-agente. Entre las tecnologías del acuerdo, la negociación automática ha sido propuesta como uno de los mecanismos clave en la resolución de conflictos debido a su uso análogo en la resolución de conflictos entre humanos. La negociación automática consiste en el intercambio automático de propuestas llevado a cabo por agentes software en nombre de sus usuarios. El objetivo final es conseguir un acuerdo con todas las partes involucradas. Pese a haber sido estudiada por la Inteligencia Artificial durante años, distintos problemas todavía no han sido resueltos por la comunidad científica todavía. El principal objetivo de esta tesis es proponer modelos de negociación para escenarios complejos donde la complejidad deriva de (1) las limitaciones computacionales o (ii) la necesidad de representar las preferencias de múltiples individuos. En la primera parte de esta tesis proponemos un modelo de negociación bilateral para el problema deSánchez Anguix, V. (2013). Complex negotiations in multi-agent systems [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/21570Palanci

Searching for joint gains in automated negotiations based on multi-criteria decision making theory

It is well established by conflict theorists and others that successful negotiation should incorporate "creating value" as well as "claiming value." Joint improvements that bring benefits to all parties can be realised by (i) identifying attributes that are not of direct conflict between the parties, (ii) tradeoffs on attributes that are valued differently by different parties, and (iii) searching for values within attributes that could bring more gains to one party while not incurring too much loss on the other party. In this paper we propose an approach for maximising joint gains in automated negotiations by formulating the negotiation problem as a multi-criteria decision making problem and taking advantage of several optimisation techniques introduced by operations researchers and conflict theorists. We use a mediator to protect the negotiating parties from unnecessary disclosure of information to their opponent, while also allowing an objective calculation of maximum joint gains. We separate out attributes that take a finite set of values (simple attributes) from those with continuous values, and we show that for simple attributes, the mediator can determine the Pareto-optimal values. In addition we show that if none of the simple attributes strongly dominates the other simple attributes, then truth telling is an equilibrium strategy for negotiators during the optimisation of simple attributes. We also describe an approach for improving joint gains on non-simple attributes, by moving the parties in a series of steps, towards the Pareto-optimal frontier

Generic Methods for Adaptive Management of Service Level Agreements in Cloud Computing

The adoption of cloud computing to build and deliver application services has been nothing less than phenomenal. Service oriented systems are being built using disparate sources composed of web services, replicable datastores, messaging, monitoring and analytics functions and more. Clouds augment these systems with advanced features such as high availability, customer affinity and autoscaling on a fair pay-per-use cost model. The challenge lies in using the utility paradigm of cloud beyond its current exploit. Major trends show that multi-domain synergies are creating added-value service propositions. This raises two questions on autonomic behaviors, which are specifically ad- dressed by this thesis. The first question deals with mechanism design that brings the customer and provider(s) together in the procurement process. The purpose is that considering customer requirements for quality of service and other non functional properties, service dependencies need to be efficiently resolved and legally stipulated. The second question deals with effective management of cloud infrastructures such that commitments to customers are fulfilled and the infrastructure is optimally operated in accordance with provider policies. This thesis finds motivation in Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to answer these questions. The role of SLAs is explored as instruments to build and maintain trust in an economy where services are increasingly interdependent. The thesis takes a wholesome approach and develops generic methods to automate SLA lifecycle management, by identifying and solving relevant research problems. The methods afford adaptiveness in changing business landscape and can be localized through policy based controls. A thematic vision that emerges from this work is that business models, services and the delivery technology are in- dependent concepts that can be finely knitted together by SLAs. Experimental evaluations support the message of this thesis, that exploiting SLAs as foundations for market innovation and infrastructure governance indeed holds win-win opportunities for both cloud customers and cloud providers