A Multi-Dimensional Trust Model for Heterogeneous Contract Observations
OA Location
Author(s)
Reece, Steven
Rogers, Alex
Roberts, Stephen
Jennings, NR
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
In this paper we develop a novel probabilistic model of computational trust that allows agents to exchange and combine reputation reports over heterogeneous, correlated multi-dimensional contracts. We consider the specific case of an agent attempting to procure a bundle of services that are subject to correlated quality of service failures (e.g. due to use of shared resources or infrastructure), and where the direct experience of other agents within the system consists of contracts over different combinations of these services. To this end, we present a formalism based on the Kalman filter that represents trust as a vector estimate of the probability that each service will be successfully delivered, and a covariance matrix that describes the uncertainty and correlations between these probabilities. We describe how the agents? direct experiences of contract outcomes can be represented and combined within this formalism, and we empirically demonstrate that our formalism provides significantly better trustworthiness estimates than the alternative of using separate single-dimensional trust models for each separate service (where information regarding the correlations between each estimate is lost).
Date Issued
2007
Citation
2007, pp.128-135
Start Page
128
End Page
135
Identifier
http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/263867/
Source
Twenty-Second AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Notes
Event Dates: July 2007
Publication Status
Unpublished