A Reference Architecture for Automated Negotiations of Service Agreements in Open and Dynamic Environments

Abstract

The provision of services is often regulated by means of agreements that must be negotiated beforehand. Automating such ne gotiations is appealing insofar it overcomes one of the most often cited shortcomings of human negotiation: slowness. In this article, we report on a reference architecture that helps guide the development of automated negotiation systems; we also delve into the requirements that must au tomated negotiation systems must address to deal with negotiations of service agreements in open environments. Finally, we analyse how well suited current software frameworks to develop automated negotiation systems are for negotiating service agreements in open environments. This approach is novel in the sense that, to the best of our knowledge, no previous article compares extensively automated negotiation frame works in the context of negotiating service agreements in open environ ments nor provides a reference architecture specifically designed for this scenario.