An Efficient Protocol for Negotiation over Combinatorial Domains with
  Incomplete Information
  We study the problem of agent-based negotiation in combinatorial domains. It
is difficult to reach optimal agreements in bilateral or multi-lateral
negotiations when the agents' preferences for the possible alternatives are not
common knowledge. Self-interested agents often end up negotiating inefficient
agreements in such situations. In this paper, we present a protocol for
negotiation in combinatorial domains which can lead rational agents to reach
optimal agreements under incomplete information setting. Our proposed protocol
enables the negotiating agents to identify efficient solutions using
distributed search that visits only a small subspace of the whole outcome
space. Moreover, the proposed protocol is sufficiently general that it is
applicable to most preference representation models in combinatorial domains.
We also present results of experiments that demonstrate the feasibility and
computational efficiency of our approach.
