The Impact of Network Topology on Trade in Bartering Networks - Devising and Assessing Network Information Propagation Mechanisms

Resource allocation in distributed systems is an exciting area of research. Inherent properties in this environment, such as strategic users acting selfishly and the structure of the environment within which exchanges occur, are relevant challenges to study. This paper proposes a market–based resource allocation in a distributed environment. Our model has as it is objective the exploration of the effects of network structure in the allocation of performance together with mechanisms to improve the performance of the market. The proposed model, as well as mechanisms to maximize the allocation of objects/goods have been implemented and studied experimentally. The results obtained shows that topology affects the performance of the market. Using information propagation mechanisms clearly contributes to its improvement.