A framework for contractual resource sharing in coalitions

We develop a framework for specifying and reasoning about policies for sharing resources in coalitions, focussing here on a particular, common type of contract in which coalition members agree to make available some total amount of specified resource over a given time period. The main part of the framework is a policy language with two basic elements: ´obligations´ (of a member enterprise to provide a total amount of resource over a given time period) express the coalition policy, and ´entitlements´ (granted by an enterprise to other coalition members) express the local policies of the coalition members. We discuss the conditions under which a local policy can be said to be in compliance with, or meet, the obligations of a coalition policy, and the conditions under which an obligation, and by extension a contract, can be said to be violated or fulfilled.