MAGMA - AN AGENT-BASED VIRTUAL MARKET FOR ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

We propose an architecture for an agent-based virtual market that incl udes all elements required for simulating a real market. These element s include a communication infrastructure, mechanisms for storage and t ransfer of goods, banking and monetary transactions, and economic mech anisms for direct or brokered producer-consumer transactions We report findings that resulted from implementing and conducting experiments w ith a free-market agent architecture (MAGMA). MAGMA is an extensible a rchitecture that provides all services essential to agent-based commer cial activities. These services are available,through an open-standard messaging API, which allows using a heterogeneous set of agents, inde pendently of the plat form and language.