Project No.: 5003-045384 01.05.96 - 31.12.99

Project leader: Prof. Beat Schmid, Institut für Medien- und Kommunikationsmanagement, University of St. Gallen
e-mail: beat.schmid@mcm.unisg.ch

Name of project: Abdra: Auction-based Distributed Resource Allocation

Partners:
Reinhard Riedl, Institut für Informatik, University of Zurich,
Stephan Jüngling, UBD (SBV Schweizerischer Bankverein, Basel)
Patrick Haertsch, Information Objects, St. Gallen

Funding: Sfr 573,558.-

Summary:
In public networks like the Internet, the problem arises of how to bring information providers and seekers together with the help of computer support. Instead of a centralized solution, a market-based model relying on distributed and local negotiation seems likely to yield better results.

The "Auction-based Distributed Resource Allocation" project proposes the use, on both conceptional and practical levels, of a market model for the allocation of computer resources and of services obtained over the network. The technique of agents and communication messengers combined with automatic auctions is used to implement the coordination between the electronic equivalent of consumer, procurer and supplier of goods and services. The developed functions of resource allocation are integrated into an existing, object-oriented (OO) environment to strengthen the "trader component".

In the first phase of the project, auctions were distinguished by type and a mobile agent was implemented. The studies showed that, in addition to the auction types, qualitative criteria such as customer preferences also have a major bearing. Besides the price-oriented auction mechanisms, customer preference oriented criteria such as user profiles are also deployed. The experience gained is being tested on a UBS (formerly SBV Schweizerischer Bankverein) case. An additional industrial partner was acquired in the form of Information Objects, a newly established company which is a spin-off of the University of St. Gallen.

Cooperation: Contributions by the partners in this project are as follows:

• University of St. Gallen (Prof. B. Schmid): market models;
• University of Zurich, Prof. Richter: CORBA-compatible connectivity and application-level services; Dr. Tschudin: agents and communication messengers;
• UBS (former SBV), Basel; Information Objects, St. Gallen, trialling the findings.