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Bid Evaluation and Selection in the MAGNET Automated Contracting System

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Agent Mediated Electronic Commerce (AMET 1998)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1571))

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Abstract

We present an approach to the bid-evaluation problem in a system for multi-agent contract negotiation, called MAGNET. The MAGNET market infrastructure provides support for a variety of types of transactions, from simple buying and selling of goods and services to complex multi-agent contract negotiations. In the latter case, MAGNET is designed to negotiate contracts based on temporal and precedence constraints, and includes facilities for dealing with time-based contingencies. One responsibility of a customer agent in the MAGNET system is to select an optimal bid combination. We present an efficient anytime algorithm for a customer agent to select bids submitted by supplier agents in response to a call for bids. Bids might include combinations of subtasks and might include discounts for combinations. In an experimental study we explore the behavior of the algorithm based on the interactions of factors such as bid prices, number of bids, and number of subtasks. The results of experiments we present show that the algorithm is extremely efficient even for large number of bids.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA

    Erik Steinmetz, John Collins, Scott Jamison, Rashmi Sundareswara, Bamshad Mobasher & Maria Gini

Authors
  1. Erik Steinmetz
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  2. John Collins
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  3. Scott Jamison
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  4. Rashmi Sundareswara
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  5. Bamshad Mobasher
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  6. Maria Gini
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. INEGI, San Juan Mixcoac, Mexico, DF, 03720, Mexico

    Pablo Noriega

  2. IIIA, CSIC - Spanish Scientific Research Council, E-08193, Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain

    Carles Sierra

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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Steinmetz, E., Collins, J., Jamison, S., Sundareswara, R., Mobasher, B., Gini, M. (1999). Bid Evaluation and Selection in the MAGNET Automated Contracting System. In: Noriega, P., Sierra, C. (eds) Agent Mediated Electronic Commerce. AMET 1998. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 1571. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48835-9_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48835-9_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-65955-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48835-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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