A utility based, multi-attribute negotiation approach for semantic web services

Apart from some other important Semantic Web service related processes such as discovery, selection, composition etc., the process of negotiation is also generally required in the semantic web based systems. Before taking the services of a service provider, the service requester may need to negotiate with it on various issues. A utility-based, multi-attribute negotiation approach capable of providing negotiation between participating semantic web services has been presented in this paper. The approach is based upon the use of utility functions in the negotiation process and uses multiple attributes as the basis of negotiation. A communication model describing the negotiation process has been presented. The paper also presents the algorithms for various activities involved in the negotiation process. The work also proposes a novel concept of negotiation-feedback using a novel data-structure, Agreement Table. This concept can be helpful in expediting the negotiation process by decreasing the number of negotiation steps in which the agreement is reached. An evaluation of the work has been presented and a prototype system providing negotiation between semantic web services has been implemented.

[1]  Katia P. Sycara,et al.  A computational model for online agent negotiation , 2002, Proceedings of the 35th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[2]  George D. Stamoulis,et al.  Efficient agent-based negotiation for telecommunications services , 1999, Seamless Interconnection for Universal Services. Global Telecommunications Conference. GLOBECOM'99. (Cat. No.99CH37042).

[3]  Michael Rebstock.  Efficiency and flexibility of multi-attribute negotiations-the role of business object frameworks , 2001, 12th International Workshop on Database and Expert Systems Applications.

[4]  J. Wilkes.  Utility Functions, Prices, and Negotiation , 2009 .

[5]  Xiaolong Xue,et al.  Agent Based Multi-attribute Negotiation for Large-Scale Construction Project Supply Chain Coordination , 2006, 2006 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology Workshops.

[6]  Marianne Winslett,et al.  PeerTrust: Automated Trust Negotiation for Peers on the Semantic Web , 2004, Secure Data Management.

[7]  Axel Polleres,et al.  Trust Negotiation for Semantic Web Services , 2004, SWSWPC.

[8]  Michael Rebstock,et al.  Interactive multi-attribute electronic negotiations in the supply chain: design issues and an application prototype , 2003, 36th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2003. Proceedings of the.

[9]  Katia Sycara,et al.  Efficient Multi-Attribute Negotiation with Incomplete Information , 2006 .

[10]  Nikos E. Mastorakis,et al.  Towards a utility based computational model for negotiation between semantic web services , 2009 .

[11]  A. Rubinstein.  Perfect Equilibrium in a Bargaining Model , 1982 .

[12]  Victor Lesser,et al.  Multi-dimensional, multistep negotiation for task allocation in a cooperative system , 2005 .

[13]  Jos de Bruijn,et al.  Web Service Modeling Ontology , 2005, Appl. Ontology.

[14]  Yulian Fei,et al.  A Multi-agent, Multi-object and Multi-attribute Intelligent Negotiation Model , 2007, Fourth International Conference on Fuzzy Systems and Knowledge Discovery (FSKD 2007).

[15]  Holger Lausen,et al.  D2v02. Web Service Modeling Ontology - Standard (WSMO - Standard) , 2004 .

[16]  Nicholas R. Jennings,et al.  Foundations of distributed artificial intelligence , 1996, Sixth-generation computer technology series.

[17]  Guoming Lai,et al.  A Generic Framework for Automated Multi-attribute Negotiation , 2009 .

[18]  Fillia Makedon,et al.  On the Design and Implementation of a Web-based Negotiation System , 2003 .

[19]  Victor R. Lesser,et al.  Multi-Dimensional, MultiStep Negotiation , 2004, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.

[20]  Kuo-Ming Chao,et al.  Architecture of an agent-based negotiation mechanism , 2002, Proceedings 22nd International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops.

[21]  Nikos E. Mastorakis,et al.  A utility model for negotiation between semantic web services , 2009, IEEE ICT 2009.

[22]  Catholijn M. Jonker,et al.  An agent architecture for multi-attribute negotiation using incomplete preference information , 2007, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.