Tech Reports

ULCS-03-015

Modularity in Interaction Protocols

Benjamin Vitteau and Marc-Philippe Huget

Abstract

Protocols or part of protocols are frequently reused through projects if they are sufficiently generic. For instance, the Contract Net protocol can be used verbatim or in other protocols such as the supply chain management. This reusability might be difficult to do due to the lack of reusability in current interaction protocol formalisms. In this paper, we present a new approach based on a modular architecture. A protocol is no longer monolithic but a composition of modules called micro-protocols. This approach improves modularity and reusability in interaction protocol engineering. We apply this idea to the supply chain management. Keywords: Multiagent systems, Interaction, Interaction protocols, Description language, Modularity.

For each technical report listed here, copyright and all intellectual property rights remain with the respective authors. Copyright is effective from the year of publication in each case. By downloading a file from this page, you agree to use it only for purposes of research and scholarship. Any other use of this material or storage of it in any medium or its sale or distribution in any form is expressly forbidden without prior written permission from the authors concerned.