9863446
ITTALKS: An Application of Agents in the Semantic Web
Effective use of the vast quantity of information now available on the web will require the use of "Semantic Web" markup languages such as the DARPA Agent Markup Language (DAML). Such languages will enable the automated gathering and processing of much information that is currently available but insufficiently utilized. Effectively, such languages will facilitate the integration of multi-agent systems with the existing information infrastructure. As part of our exploration of SemanticWeb technology, and DAML in particular, we have constructed ITTALKS, a web-based system for automatic and intelligent notification of information technology talks. In this paper, we describe the ITTALKS system, and discuss the numerous ways in which the use of Semantic Web concepts and DAML extend its ability to provide an intelligent online service to both the human community and the agents assisting them.
31295380
Intelligent Agents for Mobile and Embedded Devices
The pervasive computing environments of the near future will involve the interactions, coordination and cooperation of numerous, casually accessible, and often invisible computing devices. These devices, whether carried on our person or embedded in our homes, businesses and classrooms, will connect via wireless and wired links to one another and to the global networking infrastructure. The result will be a networking milieu with a new level of openness. The localized and dynamic nature of their interactions raises many new issues that draw on and challenge the disciplines of agents, distributed systems, and security. This paper describes recent work by the UMBC Ebiquity research group which addresses some of these issues.
309926
Using semantic web technology in multi-agent systems: a case study in the TAGA trading agent environment
Travel Agent Game in Agentcities (TAGA) is the framework that extends and enhances the Trading Agent Competition (TAC) scenario to work in Agentcities, an open multi agent environment based on FIPA compliant pla tforms. TAGA uses the semantic web languages and tools (RDF and OWL) to specify and publish the underlying common ontologies; as a content language within the FIPA ACL messages; as the basis for agent knowledge bases via XSB-based reasoning tools; to describe and reason about services. TAGA extends the FIPA protocols to support open market auctions and enriches the Agentcities with auction services. The introducing of the semantic web languages improves the interoperability among agents. TAGA is intended as a platform for research in multi-agent systems, the semantic web and automated trading in dynamic markets as well as a self-contained application for teaching and experimentation with these technologies.
9322495
SOUPA: standard ontology for ubiquitous and pervasive applications
We describe a shared ontology called SOUPA - standard ontology for ubiquitous and pervasive applications. SOUPA is designed to model and support pervasive computing applications. This ontology is expressed using the Web ontology language OWL and includes modular component vocabularies to represent intelligent agents with associated beliefs, desires, and intentions, time, space, events, user profiles, actions, and policies for security and privacy. We discuss how SOUPA can be extended and used to support the applications of CoBrA, a broker-centric agent architecture for building smart meeting rooms, and MoGATU, a peer-to-peer data management for pervasive environments.
10838244
Streaming SMIL Presentations via a Multimedia Semantic Model
The Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) allows Web designers to design complicated and vivid multimedia presentations in a declarative manner. In this paper, an abstract semantic model called Multimedia Augmented Transition Network (MATN) is used to model the conceptual structure of SMIL, as well as the temporal relations and synchronization control. The advantages of using the MATN model are its simplicity and ease of modification (scalability). Users can easily generate their favorite multimedia presentations using MATNs and render them using the SMIL players. Since the SMIL specification is quite new to the Internet society, the functionality of the players is limited, i.e., they often acquire proprietary platforms or cannot deal with MPEG or RTP media objects. Another contribution of this paper is to propose a novel architecture based on Java JMF technology for tackling with such constraints.
32552978
A Knowledge-Based Design for Hypertext-Based Document Retrieval Systems
This paper presents some aspects of an ongoing research that. aims at incorporating knowledge-based search mechanisms into hypertext-based document retrieval systems. We propose an information structure that is grounded on a semantic network-based thesaurus. It serves to represent the documents and concepts (terms) involved in information retrieval. The second important component of our design is heuristics-based search mechanisms that were derived from our prior cognitive modeling study (which investigated the search strategies of expert searchers). By incorporating these components into a navigation-based hypertext, we attempt to create a system that facilitates effective and efficient information retrieval in a complex retrieval environment.
53242714
Network design with weighted players
We consider a model of game-theoretic network design initially studied by Anshelevich et al. [2], where selfish players select paths in a network to minimize their cost, which is prescribed by Shapley cost shares. If all players are identical, the cost share incurred by a player for an edge in its path is the fixed cost of the edge divided by the number of players using it. In this special case, Anshelevich et al. [2] proved that pure-strategy Nash equilibria always exist and that the price of stability--the ratio in costs of a minimumcost Nash equilibrium and an optimal solution--is Θ(log k), where k is the number of players. Little was known about the existence of equilibria or the price of stability in the general weighted version of the game. Here, each player i has a weight wi ≥ 1, and its cost share of an edge in its path equals wi times the edge cost, divided by the total weight of the players using the edge.This paper presents the first general results on weighted Shapley network design games. First, we give a simple example with no pure-strategy Nash equilibrium. This motivates considering the price of stability with respect to α-approximate Nash equilibria--outcomes from which no player can decrease its cost by more than an α multiplicative factor. Our first positive result is that O(log wmax)-approximate Nash equilibria exist in all weighted Shapley network design games, where wmax is the maximum player weight. More generally, we establish the following trade-off between the two objectives of good stability and low cost: for every α = Ω(log wmax), the price of stability with respect to O(α)- approximate Nash equilibria is O((log W)/α), where W is the sum of the players' weights. In particular, there is always an O(logW)-approximate Nash equilibrium with cost within a constant factor of optimal.Finally, we show that this trade-off curve is nearly optimal: we construct a family of networks without o(log wmax/ log log wmax)-approximate Nash equilibria, and show that for all α = Ω(logwmax/ log log wmax), achieving a price of stability of O(log W/α) requires relaxing equilibrium constraints by an Ω(α) factor.
26701472
Interface descriptions for enterprise architecture
This paper describes our experiences in implementing a repository-based system that records and manages architectural information for an organization-wide set of enterprise information systems. The system is called Interface Descriptions for Enterprise Architecture (IDEA). The IDEA system business case and system creation are discussed, and the use of the system is exemplified by applying it to a set of information systems within a large corporation. We show how the existence of a managed enterprise architecture description enables an important set of analyses: risk analyses, architecture analyses, and change management analyses. Finally, we discuss how the IDEA system has the potential to catalyze even more profound change by changing how the various systems' stakeholders interact.
36849073
Fluid approximations for a processor-sharing queue
In this paper a fluid approximation, also known as a functional strong law of large numbers (FSLLN) for a GI/G/1 queue under a processor-sharing service discipline is established and its properties are analysed. The fluid limit depends on the arrival rate, the service time distribution of the initial customers, and the service time distribution of the arriving customers. This is in contrast to the known result for the GI/G/1 queue under a FIFO service discipline, where the fluid limit is piecewise linear and depends on the service time distribution only through its mean. The piecewise linear form of the limit can be recovered by an equilibrium type choice of the initial service distribution.