genius.core.parties

Interface NegotiationParty

All Superinterfaces:

java.io.Serializable

All Known Subinterfaces:

Mediator

All Known Implementing Classes:

AbstractNegotiationParty, Agent, AgentAdapter, BOAagent, BoaParty

public interface NegotiationParty
extends java.io.Serializable

Base interface for Negotiation parties. All parties must minimally implement this interface. Parties can extend AbstractNegotiationParty to get more support from the parent class. Parties can do multilateral negotiations. Notice that 'multilateral' includes 'bilateral'.

Protocol

Your implementation must adhere to the protocol that it specifies in getProtocol(). If it doesn't, it may be kicked from the negotiation at runtime.

Implementors of this class must have a public no-argument constructor. In fact we recommend not to implement any constructor at all and do initialization in the init() call.

Immediately after construction of the class, the functiondsf #init(AbstractUtilitySpace, Deadline, TimeLineInfo, long, AgentID,PersistentDataContainer) will be called.

Sand-boxing

The functions in this interface are implemented by competitors in a competition of agents. All calls to this interface may be sand-boxed in an attempt to ensure the competition will follow the protocols (instead of crashing). Sand-boxing attempts to protect the rest of the system for out-of-memory, time-out, throws, and various types of SecurityManager related issues (eg calling System.exit(int)) that may occur inside the implemented party.

Some functions are limited to a fixed time limit, eg 1 second. Other functions may be limited to a deadline as set in the actual settings for the negotiation. In that case, the deadline is a global deadline for which the entire negotiation session must be completed. If the deadline is round based, the session is usually also time-limited to 180 seconds, to ensure that even in a round-based negotiation, the negotiotion will end in a reasonable time.

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
Action	chooseAction(java.util.List<java.lang.Class<? extends Action>> possibleActions) When this function is called, it is expected that the Party chooses one of the actions from the possible action list and returns an instance of the chosen action.
java.lang.String	getDescription()
java.lang.Class<? extends MultilateralProtocol>	getProtocol() Get the protocol that this party supports.
void	init(NegotiationInfo info) Initializes the party, informing it of many negotiation details.
java.util.Map<java.lang.String,java.lang.String>	negotiationEnded(Bid acceptedBid) This is called to inform the agent that the negotiation has been ended.
void	receiveMessage(AgentID sender, Action action) This method is called to inform the party that another NegotiationParty chose an Action.

Method Detail

init

void init(NegotiationInfo info)

Initializes the party, informing it of many negotiation details. This MUST be called exactly once, immediately after construction of any class implementing this.

Parameters:

info - information about the negotiation that this party is part of.

chooseAction

Action chooseAction(java.util.List<java.lang.Class<? extends Action>> possibleActions)

When this function is called, it is expected that the Party chooses one of the actions from the possible action list and returns an instance of the chosen action.

Parameters:

possibleActions - List of all actions possible.

Returns:

The chosen Action.

receiveMessage

void receiveMessage(AgentID sender,
                    Action action)

This method is called to inform the party that another NegotiationParty chose an Action.

Parameters:

sender - The initiator of the action.This is either the AgentID, or null if the sender is not an agent (e.g., the protocol).

action - The action performed

getDescription

java.lang.String getDescription()

Returns:

a human-readable description for this party.

getProtocol

java.lang.Class<? extends MultilateralProtocol> getProtocol()

Get the protocol that this party supports.

Returns:

the actual supported MultilateralProtocol, usually StackedAlternatingOffersProtocol.

negotiationEnded

java.util.Map<java.lang.String,java.lang.String> negotiationEnded(Bid acceptedBid)

This is called to inform the agent that the negotiation has been ended. This allows the agent to record some final conclusions about the run.

Parameters:

acceptedBid - the final accepted bid, or null if no agreement was reached.

Returns:

Map containing data to log for this agent. null is equal to returning an empty HashMap. Typically, this info will be logged by XmlWriteStream.write(String, java.util.Map) to an XML file.