Brokering as a Decision Loop: Trust-Aware Multi-Agent Architectures for Data Marketplaces

AAMAS 2026 Workshop EMAS Submission36 Authors

Keywords: Trust-aware brokering, Multi-agent systems (MAS), Data marketplaces, Earth observation, Knowledge graphs

Abstract:

Earth-observation data marketplaces increasingly depend on repeated service commitments made under uncertainty about provider behavior and delivery risk. Existing brokering workflows treat each request separately. Evidence from prior transactions is retained locally within bilateral relationships and is not used to inform subsequent decisions. This paper makes the case that brokering should be treated as a data management problem. Allocation, pricing, and trust assessment can be expressed as queries over accumulated marketplace knowledge rather than as ad hoc negotiations. We outline SPECTRAM, a multi-agent brokering architecture in which a logical orchestrator coordinates specialized agents over a shared knowledge graph. Agents do not invoke one another, and all interactions are mediated by the orchestrator's state and the shared graph. Service commitments rely on trust and service performance from prior transactions, while transaction outcomes are recorded and used for subsequent decisions.
We emphasize agent roles, read/write separation, and orchestration as key design choices for trust-aware brokering. This short paper outlines a research direction for next-generation earth-observation marketplaces and identifies open challenges for MAS and data marketplaces. The proposed framing applies to service marketplaces where transaction history informs future commitments.

Paper Type: Short paper

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Submission Number: 36