DL-based Alternating-offers Protocol for Automated Multi-issue Bilateral Negotiation

We present a novel approach to logic-based bilateral negotiation in ecommerce systems. We use Description Logics to describe both requests/offers submitted by buyers and sellers, and relations among issues as axioms in a TBox. Moreover, exploiting concept contraction in DLs, we are able to handle conflicting information both in goods and services descriptions. We ground the approach in a P2P e-marketplace framework, and introduce a logic-based alternating-offers protocol. In such a protocol we exploit both knowledge representation tools and utility theory to find the most suitable agreements.