OICAS: an online iterative combinatorial auction system

An online iterative combinatorial auction system called OICAS is designed and developed. The system can be used to auction multiple items each with a single unit simultaneously and a bidder can bid any bundle of items. A new auction mechanism, called the ascending revenue mechanism, and a novel winner determination algorithm are proposed. Unified Modeling Language (UML) models are developed for describing the system. A prototype of OICAS is implemented using Visual Basic and Microsoft Access. Computational testing shows that this system is fast enough to be used online.