A bargaining-specific architecture for supporting automated service agreement negotiation systems

TitleA bargaining-specific architecture for supporting automated service agreement negotiation systems
Publication TypeArticle in Journal
Year of Publication2012
AuthorsResinas, Manuel, Pablo Fernandez, and Rafael Corchuelo
JournalScience of Computer Programming
Volume77
Number1
Pages4-28
Date PublishedJan
ISSN01676423
Keywordsautomated negotiation, negotiation, service agreements, software architecture
Citation KeyResinas2010
URLhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scico.2010.09.008
DOI10.1016/j.scico.2010.09.008
Abstract

The provision of services is often regulated by means of agreements that must be negotiated beforehand. Automating such negotiations is appealing insofar as it overcomes one of the most often cited shortcomings of human negotiation: slowness. Our analysis of the requirements of automated negotiation systems in open environments suggests that some of them cannot be tackled in a protocol-independent manner, which motivates the need for a protocol-specific architecture. However, current state-of-the-art bargaining architectures fail to address all of these requirements together. Our key contribution is a bargaining architecture that addresses all of the requirements we have identified. The definition of the architecture includes a logical view that identifies the key architectural elements and their interactions, a process view that identifies how the architectural elements can be grouped together into processes, a development view that includes a software framework that provides a reference implementation developers can use to build their own negotiation systems, and a scenarios view by means of which the architecture is illustrated and validated.

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