Method for resolving conflicts among distributed entities through the

Abstract

Communication among entities such as customer premises equipment (20, 22, 28) in a telecommunications network (10) is set up through the use of agents representing each entity (20, 22, 28). Agents representing corresponding entities in the telecommunications network (10) negotiate over the type of communication sessions in which the corresponding entities want to be involved. The negotiation process involves the exchange of proposals by agents. A proposal comprises one or more planned actions which can be taken in the network (10). One agent generates a proposal acceptable to it and transmits the proposal to another agent. The receiving agent determines if the received proposal is acceptable to it and if not generates a counterproposal. The process continues until a proposal acceptable to both agents is found or it is determined that there is no proposal for realizing the particular type of communication session which is acceptable to both agents. An agent determines whether a proposal is acceptable to it through use of a goal hierarchy. The goal hierarchy indicates whether or not specific actions for accomplishing a goal are acceptable. The use of the goal hierarchy permits an agent to infer another agent's goals, and to find alternate actions that achieve this goal. The negotiation process enables agents to reach agreement without modification of their goals and without requiring the disclosure of restricted information to other agents. The inventive negotiation method is also applicable to other distributed systems.