A mobile auction service based on mobile agents : design and analysis

With the advent of wireless networking and mobile computing technologies, there has been considerable interest in developing various mobile commerce services such as mobile auctions. This paper presents a mobile auction service based on mobile agents. Using a proxy server, users can generate a mobile agent by providing bidding information through a mobile terminal. The agent then moves to the required server to bid according to the user requirements. We have developed a prototype to demonstrate and evaluate the basic functions in a wireless network. Furthermore, we have formulated a mathematical model to analyse the commonly used 'proxy bidding method' for the mobile auction system. Based on the distribution of the maximum bidding price, the model can be used to find the probability of stopping at a certain price and, hence, the average winning price. Simulation and analytical results are presented to demonstrate the behaviour of the system.Department of Computin