Decentralized vs. Centralized Economic Coordination of Resource Allocation in Grids

Application layer networks are software architectures that allow the provisioning of services requiring a huge amount of resources by connecting large numbers of individual computers like in Grid or Peer to Peer computing Controlling the resource allocation in those net works is nearly impossible using a centralized arbitrator The network simulation project CATNET will evaluate a decentralized mechanism for resource allocation which is based on the economic paradigm of the Catallaxy against a centralized mechanism using an arbitrator object In both versions software agents buy and sell network services and resources to and from each other The economic model is based on self interested maximization of utility and self interested cooperation between agents This article describes the setup of money and message ows both for centralized and decentralized coordination in comparison Decentralized Resource Allocation Mechanisms and