A Markov-decision-based price comparison problem for mobile agent-based Internet commerce system (MAGICS)

Author

Lam, Perry P Y ; Chan, Henry C B

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput., Hong Kong Polytech. Univ., China

fYear

2004

fDate

6-9 July 2004

Firstpage

34

Lastpage

41

Abstract

Mobile agents are well suited for facilitating the consumer buying process on the Internet, particularly for comparing prices. In this paper, we present a mobile agent-based e-commerce system, called MAGICS, that addresses some issues concerning price comparisons. After providing an overview of the MAGICS architecture, we use the Markov decision theory to formulate a price comparison problem. The objective of the problem is to obtain an optimal decision policy in order to buy a product at the lowest expected cost, including the traveling costs. The problem was solved using the backward induction algorithm. Some analytical results are presented and discussed.

Keywords

Markov processes; decision theory; electronic commerce; inference mechanisms; mobile agents; pricing; Internet commerce system; MAGICS; Markov decision theory; backward induction algorithm; consumer buying; e-commerce system; electronic commerce; mobile agents; optimal decision policy; price comparison problem; traveling costs; Application software; Business; Consumer electronics; Cost function; Decision theory; Electronic commerce; Internet; Mobile agents; Portals; Software agents;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

e-Commerce Technology, 2004. CEC 2004. Proceedings. IEEE International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7695-2098-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICECT.2004.1319715

Filename

1319715