@techreport{bredin:demand-tr,
    author = {Jonathan Bredin and David Kotz and Daniela Rus},
    title = {Utility Driven Mobile-Agent Scheduling},
    year = {1998},
    month = {May},
    number = {PCS-TR98-331},
    institution = {Dept. of Computer Science, Dartmouth College},
    copyright = {the authors},
    note = {Revised October 3, 1998},
    later = {bredin:demand},
    url = {http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~dfk/papers/bredin-demand-tr.pdf},
    keyword = {mobile agents, market-based control, resource allocation, dfk},
    abstract = {Mobile agents are programs capable of migrating from one host
machine to another. We propose that mobile agents purchase resource access
rights from host machines thereby establishing a market for computational
resources and giving agents a metric to evenly distribute themselves
throughout the network. Market participation requires quantitative
information about resource consumption to define demand and calculate
utility. \par 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 mobile agents may use server prices to
distribute themselves evenly throughout a network.}
}