An agent-based model for user-centric composite service provision

Dissertant

Sadiqi, Hind

Thesis advisor

Harrud, Hamid

Comitee Members

Cavalli Sforza, Violetta
Smith, Kevin Scott
al-Kittani, M. D.

University

Al Akhawayn University

Faculty

School of Science and Engineering

Department

Software Engineering

University Country

Morocco

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2012

English Abstract

Current computing technologies offer a wide variety of devices for the user to choose from.

Using these smarter, more powerful, and increasingly mobile devices creates a greater need than ever for ubiquitous connectivity and network-accessible applications.

More and more of these applications are now presented to the user as services in a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) context.

A multitude of services are now readily available for direct consumption by end-users.

These same services can also be combined in new ways to create composite services offering even more sophisticated functionalities.

The appeal of this approach to service provision is clear: faster, cheaper development, increased software reuse and interoperability, etc.

However, it also raises a number of questions as to its practicality in a B2C context: when and how to build service compositions, how much of this process to automate, how to handle user requirements given that requirements vary with users and context, how to capture the respective interests of the consumer and the provider, and the extent to which we can realistically involve both parties in the personalization and composition of services.

To address these questions, we study the possibility of adaptive composite service provision from a practical standpoint.

The service composition possibilities are defined and validated by vendors with specific agendas.

On the other hand, the choice of composition is made at run-time, taking into account preferences and context constraints from both the “consumer” and the “provider” sides of the service provision.

We propose an agent-based model that provides user-adapted services as a bargaining process between self-interested consumer and provider agents.

A multi-attribute utility-based decision mechanism is used considering the user preferences and the agents’ respective contexts and cost values.

We adopt a semi-automatic composition approach that accommodates the requirements of real-world service providers.

This is achieved by trade-off between controlled composition possibilities and agent-coordinated execution.

The resulting system relies on the decision-making capabilities of its agents to agree on a suitable composition plan for the user and cooperate to provide the value-added composite service.

A prototype system is implemented to evaluate our model.

Main Subjects

Engineering & Technology Sciences (Multidisciplinary)

No. of Pages

106

Table of Contents

Table of contents.

Abstract.

Abstract in Arabic.

Chapter One : Introduction.

Chapter Two : Problem definition and context.

Chapter Three : Background and related work.

Chapter Four : Service composition and personalization approach.

Chapter Five : Multi-agent system design.

Chapter Six : Prototype implementation.

Chapter Seven : Evaluation and analysis.

Chapter Eight : Conclusion.

References.

American Psychological Association (APA)

Sadiqi, Hind. (2012). An agent-based model for user-centric composite service provision. (Master's theses Theses and Dissertations Master). Al Akhawayn University, Morocco
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-647456

Modern Language Association (MLA)

Sadiqi, Hind. An agent-based model for user-centric composite service provision. (Master's theses Theses and Dissertations Master). Al Akhawayn University. (2012).
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-647456

American Medical Association (AMA)

Sadiqi, Hind. (2012). An agent-based model for user-centric composite service provision. (Master's theses Theses and Dissertations Master). Al Akhawayn University, Morocco
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-647456

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-647456