A MAS-Based Negotiation Mechanism to Deal with Service Collaboration in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing focuses on the use of scalable and often virtualized resources. It is based on service-level agreements made to provide external users with services under request. Cloud computing is still evolving so that new specific negotiation mechanisms among service providers are needed for enabling effective collaboration, allowing the process of serving consumers to be more efficient. This paper presents a negotiation mechanism (mean algorithm and protocol) that allows nodes in a ¿cloud¿ to achieve an effective collaboration among service providers by means of a multi-agent architecture. In this multi-agent system, agents are aware of its surroundings by means of a parametrical and flexible use of the information related with this awareness situation. This approach makes use of heuristic strategies in order to improve the effectiveness of agents´ communication, improving therefore collaboration in these environments.