Market-Based Control: A Paradigm for Distributed Resource Allocation

Market-Based Control is a paradigm for controlling complex systems that would otherwise be very difficult to control, maintain, or expand. The purpose of this volume is to illustrate the utility of market-based control through a series of papers focusing on different applications. This volume, for the first time, brings together the research from a wide range of fields all using a market-based conceptual framework. The features of markets that have provided motivation for these works include decentralization, interacting agents, and some notion of a resource that needs to be allocated. The papers span a range including theoretical considerations, simulations, and implementations.

A computational market model based on individual action, K. Steiglitz et al; valuation of network computing resources, R.A. Gagliano and P.A. Mitchem; an equilibratory market-based approach for distributed resource allocation and their applications to communication network control, K. Kuwabara et al; market-oriented programming - some early lessons, M.P. Wellman; an automated auction in ATM network bandwidth, M.S. Miller et al; a market approach to operating system memory allocation, D. Cheriton and K. Harty; economic models for allocating resources in computer systems, D. Ferguson et al; metaphor or reality - a case study where agents bid with actual costs to schedule a factory, A.D. Baker; machining task allocation in discrete manufacturing systems, K.J. Tilley; saving energy using market-based control, S.H. Clearwater et al; the use of computer-assisted auctions for allocating tradeable pollution permits, D.B. Marron and C.W. Bartels.