Highlights
AssessGrid is software!
Methods and algorithms elaborated in the projects are put into action in software for Risk Management. The project released its first prototype in fall 2007. The second prototype was delivered during summer 2008. Final result of the project was available in February 2009.
As it is intended for reuse in other projects, the project also provides separately the Negotiation Manager for WS-Agreement protocol.
All the source code is released as Open Source under Apache V2 license.
Negotiation Manager
The AssessGrid NegotiationManager is an open source implementation of the WS-Agreement specification for negotiating Service Level Agreements between an End-User, Broker, and Provider. The implementation is based on the Globus Toolkit 4.0.
What is a negotiation?
A negotiation is the protocol used by collaborating parties to attain an agreement. The parties want to agree on some values at which an exchange can take place. Many values can vary: price, quality, quantity, time, etc.
Example: A negotiation can take place at your local grocery to buy fruit. The client, or End-User (wants to buy something), is the fruit buyer. The provider (want to sell something) is the grocer (the person behind the counter). The negotiation can concern the quantity (10 apples), the price (3€/kg), the quality (ripe), the product (granny apples).
Why a negotiation?
You need a negotiation when the product to sell can vary along several parameters, and when the provider wants to have a competitive offer. You may also want to have a negotiation when some parameters of the product are interdependent, for example time and price (e.g. buying a flight in advance is cheaper).
AssessGrid Negotiation Manager
The AssessGrid Negotiation Manager is an implementation of such a negotiation. It is based on an extension of an exisiting specification: WS-Agreement. Its protocol is more powerful and agile than the original one. The implementation proposed allows a provider to set up all the needed gears to expose WS-interfaces which can be called by a client program. It is also sufficient to use only following the original specification.
Usage scenarios
Many scenarios require a negotiation. We highlight two possiblities, which can be extended. The simplest scenario contemplates only two parties, an End-User and a Provider. The Broker scenario introduces a middleman, in charge of matching the quote request to the best fit providers.
Please refer to Usage scenarios for more detail.
Downloads and further information
Negotiation Manager is released under the Apache 2 license.
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