Contract Net Protocol

About: Contract Net Protocol is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 606 publications have been published within this topic receiving 13729 citations.

A multi-agent infrastructure and a service level agreement negotiation protocol for robust scheduling in grid computing

Abstract: In this paper we propose a new infrastructure for efficient job scheduling on the Grid using multi-agent systems and a Service Level Agreement (SLA) negotiation protocol based on the Contract Net Protocol. The agent-based Grid scheduling system involves user agents, local scheduler agents, and super scheduler agents. User agents submit jobs to Grid compute resources. Local scheduler agents schedule jobs on compute resources. Super scheduler agents act as mediators between the local scheduler and the user agents to schedule the jobs at the global level of the Grid. The SLA negotiation protocol is a hierarchical bidding mechanism involving meta-SLA negotiation between the user agents and the super scheduler agents; and sub-SLA negotiation between the super scheduler agents and the local scheduler agents. In this protocol the agents exchange SLA-announcements, SLA-bids, and SLA-awards to negotiate the schedule of jobs on Grid compute resources. In the presence of uncertainties a re-negotiation mechanism is proposed to re-negotiate the SLAs in failure.

Using Domain-Independent Exception Handling Services to Enable Robust Open Multi-Agent Systems: The Case of Agent Death

Abstract: This paper addresses a simple but critical question: how can we create robust multi-agent systems out of the often unreliable agents and infrastructures we can expect to find in open systems contexts? We propose an approach to this problem based on distinct exception handling (EH) services that enact coordination protocol-specific but domain-independent strategies to monitor agent systems for problems (‘exceptions’) and intervene when necessary to avoid or resolve them. The value of this approach is demonstrated for the ‘agent death’ exception in the Contract Net protocol; we show through simulation that the EH service approach provides substantially improved performance compared to existing approaches in a way that is appropriate for open multi-agent systems.

Creating collective intention through dialogue.

Abstract: The process of Cooperative Problem Solving can be divided into four stages. First, finding potential team members, then forming a team followed by constructing a plan for that team. Finally, the plan is executed by the team. Traditionally, protocols like the Contract Net protocol are used for performing the first two stages of the process. In an open environment however, there can be discussion among the agents in order to form a team that can achieve the collective intention of solving the problem. For these cases fixed protocols like contract net do not suffice. In this paper we present a solution, using structured dialogues, with an emphasis on persuasion, that can be shown to lead to the required team formation. The dialogues are described formally using modal logics and speech