Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Evolution of the Contract Net Protocol

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Advances in Web-Age Information Management (WAIM 2001)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2118))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Contracts are a powerful co-ordination mechanism in distributed systems. The contract net protocol has been applied since about 1980. The CNP distributes tasks to different problem-solving nodes. TRACONET extended CNP with a bidding and awarding decision process based on marginal cost calculations. The CIA(Cooperative Information Agent) framework introduced the notion of obligations, which was broadened by CAS (Contractual Agent Societies) to support the fluid organisation of agent societies. Finally, the TPA framework (Trading Partner Agreement) introduced by IBM, although not agent-based, uses contracts as well, it uses executable contract in particular. We will analyse these four different contract model related researches (CNP, TRACONET, CAS and TPA) to compare their capabilities, background assumptions and limitations. We propose an integrated architecture and discuss the essential requirements still to be met.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Q. Chen, M. Hsu, U. Dayal, M. Griss: Multi-agent co-operation, dynamic workflow and XML for e-commerce automation. HP Laboratories Palo Alto, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  2. C. Dellarocas and M. Klein: Civil Agent Societies: Tools for inventing open agent-mediated electronic marketplaces. Proceedings of the Workshop in Agent-Mediated Electronic Commerce (co-located with IJCAI’99), Stockholm, Sweden, July 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  3. C. Dellarocas and M. Klein. Designing robust, open electronic marketplaces of contract net agents. Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Charlotte, NC, December, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  4. C. Dellarocas and M. Klein.: An Experimental Evaluation of Domain-Independent Fault Handling Services in Open Multi-Agent Systems. ICMAS-2000, The International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  5. M. Griss: My Agent Will Call Your Agent... But Will It Respond?: HP Laboratories Palo Alto, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Jennings, N.R., Sycara K. and Wooldridge M.: A roadmap of agent research and development: Autonomous agents and multi-agent system 1(1) 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  7. M. Klein and C. Dellarocas.: Domain-Independent Exception Handling Services That Increase Robustness in Open Multi-Agent Systems.: ASES Working Report ASES-WP-2000-02.m Cambridge MA USA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  8. M. Sachs, A. Dan, T. Nguyen, etc,: Executable Trading-Partner Agreements in Electronic Commerce,: IBM Research Report, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Sandholm, T.: An Implementation of the Contract Net Protocol Based on Marginal Cost Calculations. Eleventh National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-93), Washington DC, pp. 256–262, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Smith, R.G.: The Contract Net Protocol: High-level Communication and Control in a Distributed Problem Solver. IEEE Trans. On Computers C-29(12): 1104–1113, 1980

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Smith, R.G., and Davis,: Frameworks for Co-operation in Distributed Problem Solving.: IEEE Trans. on System. Man and Cybernetics 11(1): 61–70, 1981

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Verharen, E.,: A Language/Action Perspective on Cooperative Information Agents.: Ph.D. Thesis, Tilburg University, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  13. H. Weigand, E. Verharen, F. Dignum,: Integrated semantics for information and communcation systems.: In: R. Meersman (Ed), Proc. IFIP WG 2.5 Database application semantics, Chapman and Hall, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  14. H. Weigand, L. Xu,: Contract In E-commerce.: 9th IFIP 2.6 Working Conference on Database Semantics, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. INFOLAB, Tilburg University, P.O.Box 90153, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Lai Xu & Hans Weigand

Authors
  1. Lai Xu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hans Weigand
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information and Software Engineering, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030-4444, USA

    X. Sean Wang

  2. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110004, China

    Ge Yu

  3. Department of Computer Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Hongjun Lu

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Xu, L., Weigand, H. (2001). The Evolution of the Contract Net Protocol. In: Wang, X.S., Yu, G., Lu, H. (eds) Advances in Web-Age Information Management. WAIM 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2118. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-47714-4_24

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-47714-4_24

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-42298-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47714-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation