Trustable Ad Hoc Networks of Agent Societies

Ad-hoc agent networks are self-organizing societies of agents. Each society of agents is composed of autonomous agents forming an ad-hoc network having no infrastructure. A network community has an interface agent that serves as the certified access point for that network. Communication between two agents within a society requires the cooperation of other agents in the society who will act as intermediaries. This paper proposes an incentive-based mechanism to promote trusted collaboration among agents within a society. Based on this mechanism and through the certified interface agents an agent in one society can securely interact with one or more agents in another society.