Agent-Based Service Composition Through Simultaneous Negotiation in Forward and Reverse

Preist, Chris ; Byde, Andrew ; Bartolini, Claudio

HP Development Company

关键词: auctions;    service composition;    agent;    negotiation;   

RP-ID  :  HPL-2003-198

学科分类：计算机科学（综合）

美国|英语

来源: HP Labs

【 摘 要 】

Service composition is the act of taking several component products or services, and bundling them together to meet the needs of a given customer. In the future, service composition will play an increasingly important role in e-commerce, and automation will be desirable to improve speed and efficiency of customer response. In this paper, we consider a service composition agent that both buys components and sells services through auctions. It buys component services by participating in many English auctions. It sells composite services by participating in Request- for-Quotes reverse auctions. Because it does not hold a long-term inventory of component services, it must take risks; it must make offers in reverse auctions prior to purchasing all the components needed, and must bid in English auctions prior to having a guaranteed customer for the composite good. We present algorithms that are able to manage this risk, by appropriately bidding/offering in many auctions and reverse auctions simultaneously. The algorithms will withdraw from one set of possible auctions and move to another set if this will produce a better-expected outcome, but will effectively manage the risk of accidentally winning outstanding bids/offers during the withdrawal process. We illustrate the behavior of these algorithms through a set of worked examples. 8 Pages