@TechReport{Dartmouth:TR98-331,
  author = {Jonathan Bredin and David Kotz and Daniela Rus},
  title = {{Utility Driven Mobile-Agent Scheduling}},
  institution = {Dartmouth College, Computer Science},
  address = {Hanover, NH},
  number = {PCS-TR98-331},
  year = {1998},
  month = {October},
  URL = {http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/reports/TR98-331.ps.Z},
  comment = {
    Original version in May 1998; revised October 3, 1998. See
    <a href="http://agent.cs.dartmouth.edu/papers/#market">related papers.</a>
  },
  abstract = {
      We investigate the possibility of using markets to
    regulate mobile agents, computer programs that
    are capable of migrating from one machine to
    another. Market participation requires quantitative
    information about resource consumption to define
    demand and calculate utility.
      We create a formal utility model to derive
    user-demand functions, allowing agents to
    efficiently plan expenditure and deal with price
    fluctuations.  By quantifying demand and utility,
    resource owners can precisely set a value for a
    good.  We simulate our model in a mobile agent
    scheduling environment and show how prices
    fluctuate, compounding uncertainty in an agent's
    plans. To solve this problem, we propose that
    resource owners sell options to allow agents to
    trade away their risk.
  }
}