A generic negotiation and re-negotiation framework for consumer-provider contracting of web services

Abstract

Electronic contracting is key issue for establishing liquid markets dealing with electronic goods. This paper presents a framework for automatic negotiation between Web services. The major goal of the framework is comprising all necessary components for negotiation and re-negotiation. The capabilities and the components are described both for Web service consumer and provider. The re-negotiation framework is based on independent control loops and associated knowledge bases for consumer and provider implementing specific business strategies. An economic cost model considering variable cost and a business rule repository are main parts of the knowledge bases. Furthermore the framework can handle auctioning by using predefined workflows as so called auctioning plug-ins.