Ontological trading in a multi-agent system

Abstract

In a more open world, the Web-based Information Systems (WIS) must be flexible and ready to be adaptable, extendable, accessible and operable by different people (or groups) who are in different places with different types of information (convergent systems). The convergence of systems is possible due to: (a) certain capacity for autonomy (software agents), (b) ability to use a common vocabulary for all convergent systems (ontologies); and (c) capacity for mediation between subsystems (traders). Moderns IS use ontologies as part of the design and implementation of their architecture. Traders are an essential part of these IS, where ontologies are required for them (traders) to facilitate integration. This paper describes the SOL-ERES trading service, a solution to carry out the mediation function within a multi-agent environmental information system. The data handled by the trader are defined by ontologies, as are the semantic description and content of the messages by which the trader communicates with the rest of the agents. An example to explain the functionality of the ontological trading agent is also introduced.