Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Distributed data processing – Processing agent
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-05
2002-01-08
Harrell, Robert B. (Department: 2152)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Distributed data processing
Processing agent
C709S206000, C709S223000, C709S241000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06338081
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a data processing technique, and more particularly, to an improved data processing method for supporting communications among two or more nodes on a network in a distributed computer environment.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There is a mobile agent technology in the art in which an internal condition is moved as it is to a place which is provided in a server existing on a network in a distributed computer environment to form an instruction in the place where it moved to. Reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,031(PUPA 7-182174) and Fumihiko Nishida, Susumu Fujiwara et al's “Latest Internet Technology, special edition of Nikkei Communication”, pp 104-117, Nikkei BP.
Such mobile agent makes a contact to other agents in the moved-to place (a mobile agent or a resident agent) and may be served as appropriate. A place is a location provided by a server existing on the network to which the agent moved and which supports a contact among agents and absorbs the differences between the hardware and between the platforms.
The mobile agent technology enables a mobile agent to act as a proxy of a human being in handling jobs such as dynamically adjusting a schedule of internal meetings in compliance with the schedule of attendees and status of reservation of conference rooms and acquiring desired information distributed on the network.
In a prior art system (part of
FIG. 10
) which makes a contact between agents, a mobile agent
101
or a resident agent
103
(in general, an agent which requests a service is called a regular agent hereinafter), in requesting a service to service provider agents
131
,
133
which have an ability to provide a service, inquires of a facilitator agent
110
which maintains an agent community
150
residing in that place to find service provider agents
131
,
133
which have an ability of providing a service, and makes a contact to the service provider agents
131
,
133
based on the information obtained from the inquiry.
However, because a service provider agent residing in community
150
was registered in and maintained by the facilitator agent
110
in a form unique to each service provider agent, regular agents
101
,
103
which desired to receive a service had to find service provider agents
131
,
133
having an ability to provide its own service from a list of agents which was received from the facilitator agent
110
.
Also, the regular agents
101
,
103
had to inquire for each service provider that corresponds to respective service provider agents
131
,
133
from which the service is received.
Further, the regular agents
101
,
103
had to control themselves even in a stereotype processing and check the content and combination of requests depending on what request was directed to what service provider.
The regular agent had to build a desired process result based on the process result they received from each service provider.
Furthermore, it was necessary to expand functions of the facilitator agent
110
, and maintain the facilitator agent
110
itself when attempting expansion of the service and halting the service in installation.
It is an object of this invention to provide a communication system which is capable of dealing with inquiries from agents flexibly, suitably and at high speed.
It is another object of this invention to provide a communication system which reduces the amount of load born by users of agents.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a communication system which absorbs the difference between service provider agents.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a communication system which enables a desired process result to be built based on a plurality of different process results received from each service provider agent.
It is still a further object of this invention to provide a communication system which enables a high speed operation by distributing tasks.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a communication system which is highly expandable by dynamically installing various agents.
It is still a further object of this invention to reduce the work and the time required for developing and maintaining a program as much as possible in providing support to communication among agents.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a communication system which is capable of flexibly dealing with conversations among agents.
It is another object of this invention to provide a message processing system which gives less load to a communication network.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In this invention, a plurality of different broker agents such as
121
,
123
(see
FIG. 1
) are provided which are customized to problem areas for processing, such as distributing and integrating tasks which are the requests from regular agents. The broker agents
121
,
123
inquire of the facilitator agent
110
, receive a list of service provider agents
131
,
133
which are relevant to their own jobs, and retain the list. The broker agent
121
which receives a message packet requesting a mediation of a job from the regular agent
101
determines the outline of the requested job by analyzing the message packet and sends it to a service provider agent which retains it as a list after certain conversion. The broker agent
121
receives a reply from the service provider agents
131
,
133
and transmits it to the regular agent
101
after certain conversion.
According to one aspect of this invention, a message processing method is provided for execution by an agent community which includes a regular agent for sending a message packet to request to process said message packet, a plurality of service provider agents for processing said message packet and a facilitator agent for maintaining a service provider agent specifying information and a service provider agent classification information, said method comprising the steps of;
(a) receiving a message packet sent from a regular agent,
(b) determining whether or not said received message packet conforms to a predetermined format,
(c) inquiring said facilitator agent to determine whether or not a service provider agent having a predetermined service provider classification information is available,
(d) converting said received message packet, and
(e) sending said converted message packet to the available service provider agent.
As used in the claims of this patent specification, “converting a message packet” shall mean a concept which includes, beside replacing a part of data of a message packet (e.g., message type or ontology, in the preferred embodiment of this invention) with other data, extracting a part of data of a message packet (such as content in the preferred embodiment of this invention) and adding data to a message packet (including forward processing to generate a message packet which has a message packet in the preferred embodiment of this invention as a content).
As used in the claims of this patent specification, “sending a message packet to a service provider agent” shall mean a concept which includes, for instance, not only sending from a sender directly to a service provider agent but also indirectly sending by utilizing other resources including a facilitator agent.
As used in the claims of this patent specification, “service provider agent specifying information” shall mean all information which enables access to a service provider agent and includes an agent name, object class name and address name as well as a combination thereof.
As used in the claims of this patent specification, “service provider agent classification information” shall mean all information which specifies the class of services provided by a service provider agent, and is a concept including all information which identify an interpreter, a translator, a conversation check routine, a format check routine, an interpretation execution routine and an execution routine that are held by a service provider agent. In the preferred embodiment of this invention, this is a concept which corresponds to an ontology infor
Furusawa Osamu
Nakda Akifumi
Suzuki Toshihiro
Tsuchitani Hajime
Doubet, Esq. Marcia L.
Harrell Robert B.
Herndon Jerry W.
International Business Machines - Corporation
Romero Almari
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