Solving WDP in combinatorial double auction based on trading strategy

A solution for winner determination problem (WDP) in combinatorial double auction (CDA) was presented. Different from determining winner by solving optimization model which was non-deterministic polynomial (NP)-hard when the number of participants or resource types amounted to a large scale, the solution put the WDP goal–social welfare maximization into design of the trading strategy and determined winners by the process of resource allocation and pricing. In its corresponding allocation and pricing algorithm, sellers were allowed partially trading their bundles; the transaction path was approximated to Marshallian path; the utility for each winner was non-negative. Simulations show, compared to the WDP optimization model, the proposed algorithm can generate larger social welfare and it is particularly time efficient in conducting large-scale CDA.