Distributed intelligent coordination strategies using auctions

In a Distributed Intelligence System, holons often lack the resources or capabilities to fulfil local and global objectives. Therefore, a mechanism must be specified to facilitate coordination in a distributed environment. This mechanism must address both the method of interaction and resource allocation. Holons can interact via Contract Net Protocol (CNP), but the commitment problem severely limits the opportunities for possible cooperation. Although many solutions to this problem have been proposed, an elegant and simple solution called Temporary Holds, allows greater flexibility with minimal message overhead. The resource allocation task can be solved by adapting auction algorithms for distributed environments. These approaches are combined into an abstract architecture providing a highly reusable and adaptable framework that can be implemented in many diverse environments, including energy trading, network bandwidth allocation and digital content exchange.