Implementing a multiagent negotiation protocol in Erlang

Abstract

In this paper we present an implementation in Erlang of a multi-agent negotiation protocol. The protocol is an extension of the well-known Contract Net Protocol, where concurrency and fault-tolerance have been addressed. We present some evidence that show Erlang is a very good choice for implementing this kind of protocol by identifying a quite high mapping between protocol specification and Erlang constructs. Moreover, we also elaborate on the added advantage that it can handle a larger number of agents than other implementations, with substantially better performance.