PERFORMANCE ASPECTS OF TRADING IN OPEN DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS

We consider the case of trading in an environment of autonomous compon ents. Trading is the process of matching a service request with the of fers to support that particular service made by potential servers. In the case of multiple matching offers a selection of the most suitable server can be made according to the properties of the server. Among th e possible selection policies we concentrate on those taking into acco unt the actual load of the server. The selection process can be delega ted to components of a special type. called traders. Various aspects i nfluence the performance of the server selection process, including th e delay of the load information. the selection strategy, the use or no n-use of traders, and the number of concurrent traders, if any. We inv estigate several trading strategies in a scenario where the load infor mation is broadcast periodically. and where multiple traders may opera te concurrently.