A QUOTA-BASED MULTI-AGENT NEGOTIATION PROTOCOL FOR COMPLEX CONTRACTS

Automated negotiation is regarded as an essential method for the coordination of software agents, However: without adequate protocols, negotiations are susceptible to malicious and strategic behavior of the agents - especially when interdependencies of contract items lead to complex contract spaces. In this study, we propose a mediator-based protocol employing acceptance quotas to ensure cooperative behavior in inter-organizational systems. Furthermore, we evaluate (thee potential extensions to the basic protocol. We have conducted simulation experiments for evaluation which show that the proposed protocol can ensure an effective welfare performance and that the proposed extensions can result in a further improvement of the basic protocol.