Decentralized resource acquisition from autonomous markets in a QoS-capable environment

We present a protocol for acquiring multiple resources that are traded thro ugh autonomous markets. Further, we describe the protocol's application to and implementation in a prototype system that supports prioritized end-to-e nd QoS for applications invoking services over an ATM switch. The correspon ding network and server resources are allocated to applications via auction s that are performed independently of each other. Finally, we investigate t he effects of market autonomy and protocol design in the performance of the system by discussing results of experiments for alternative system configu rations and workloads. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.