RFC 2552 (rfc2552) - Page 1 of 30

Architecture for the Information Brokerage in the ACTS Project GAIA

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Network Working Group                                          M. Blinov
Request for Comments: 2552                                   M. Bessonov
Category: Informational                                     C. Clissmann
                                                           Teltec UCD-CS
                                                                 Ireland
                                                              April 1999

                Architecture for Information Brokerage
                        in the ACTS Project GAIA

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This memo introduces a domain and supplier independent generic
   architecture for information brokerage, designed as part of the ACTS
   project GAIA (Generic Architecture for Information Availability).

1. Introduction

   Today a huge number of goods and services are offered on the
   electronic market by a large, and ever-increasing, number of
   suppliers.  However, there is still no efficient way for a customer
   to find a product or information, he/she is interested in and a
   supplier that can provide that product.  Customers and suppliers
   already can not deal with the quantity of available information by
   themselves.  The high heterogeneity of existing protocols, formats,
   and underlying networks also limits development of the electronic
   market.

   This results in a demand for brokerage systems that can work as
   intermediary entities between customers and content suppliers.
   Brokerage systems assist a customer during the trading process and
   hide the heterogeneity and distribution of information from the
   customer.  The design of domain and supplier independent generic
   architecture for such brokerage systems is an objective of the
   project GAIA (Generic Architecture for Information Availability).
   GAIA received part funding from the EU ACTS programme for Research
   and Technological Development.  The GAIA brokerage system allows a
   customer to



Blinov, et al.
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