Automated negotiation for service contracts

Automated negotiation draws upon research from a number of different computing disciplines, predominantly those of Game Theory, AI, Requirement specification & Authorisation research. Automated negotiation allows clients / services to come to agreements regarding service utilisation. A number of problems exist within the area, primarily those of requirement elicitation and trust. These problems can be minimised through standardisation and careful design; however, human participation in the process cannot be completely removed. This paper examines a possible format, architecture and implementation (TRANSACT) to aid in the automated negotiation of service contracts based on exogenously stated requirements / capabilities. In doing so it explores the issues and areas in which further developments are required to support future service developments.