Mobile itinerant software agent carrying itinerary and data within

• US 10,257,262 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2017
• Issued: 04/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Baek, Ock K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheema, Umar
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tolchinsky, Gregory P
• Application Number:
  US15/396,868
• Publication Number:
  US 20170111344A1
• Time in Patent Office: 826 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A method and system for performing data processing. A request for agent software is acquired by an agent computer system from a user computer system and in response, the agent computer system retrieves the agent software from a repository of agents and migrates the retrieved agent software to the user computer system. The agent computer system acquires an itinerary and N sets of run time instructions from the user computer system. N is at least 2. The itinerary specifies a path along which the agent software is to migrate to perform a portion of the data processing on N computer systems using the N sets of run time instructions. The agent computer system provides the received itinerary and the N sets of run time instructions to the agent software at the user computer system.

Claims

1. A method, said method comprising:

acquiring, by a computer processor of an agent computer system from a user computer system S₀ via interaction with a human user at the user computer system S₀, an identification of agent software and a request for the agent software and in response, said agent computer system retrieving the agent software from a repository of agents comprising the agent software and migrating the retrieved agent software to the user computer system S₀, said request for the agent software being in response to a determination that use of the agent software, instead of performing the data processing without use of the agent software, avoids compromise of data integrity of sensitive data and further avoids transfer across a network of personal information, confidential information, and a volume of data that is large enough to cause unacceptable network latency and data propagation delay across the network;

acquiring by the computer processor of the agent computer system from the user computer system S₀ via interaction with the human user at the user computer system S₀, an itinerary, security credentials C₁, C₂, . . . , C_N, and N sets of run time instructions I₁, I₂, . . . , I_N, said N being at least 2, said itinerary specifying a path along which the agent software is to migrate to perform a portion of the data processing, using one or more processors P₁, P₂, . . . , P_N and run time instructions I₁, I₂, . . . , I_N, on computer system S₁, S₂, . . . , S_N, respectively, which appear in a sequential order of S₁, S₂, . . . , S_N on the path, said security credentials C₁, C₂, . . . , C_N being specific to computer system S₁, S₂, . . . , S_N for the agent software to gain access to resources and data comprised by computer system S₁, S₂, . . . , S_N, said security credentials C₁, C₂, . . . , C_N differing from each other if N=2 or differing from one another if N>

2; and

providing, by the computer processor of the agent computer system to the agent software at the user computer system S₀, the received itinerary, security credentials, and the N sets of run time instructions I₁, I₂, . . . , I_N, which configures the agent software to perform data processing on the computer system S₁, S₂, . . . , S_N.

2. The method of claim 1, said method further comprising:

initializing an index n to 1;

receiving, by the one or more processors P_n of computer system S_n, the agent software from computer system S<sub>n−

1</sub>;

executing, by the one or more processors P_n of the computer system S_n, the set of run time instructions I_n comprised by the agent software, said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprising utilizing resources and data comprised by computer system S_n to generate an output result R_n and storing the output result R_n in the agent software and ascertaining whether n<

N or n=N;

if said ascertaining ascertains that n<

N, then said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprises migrating the agent software to system S_n+1 after which the method comprises performing said receiving and said executing with the index n incremented by 1;

if said ascertaining ascertains that n=N, then said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprises returning the agent software to computer system S₀ for enabling computer system S₀ to obtain a final result comprising the output results R₁, R₂, . . . , R_N.

3. The method of claim 2,

wherein after said receiving the agent software from computer system S_n−

1 and before said utilizing resources and data comprised by computer system S_n, said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprises presenting one or more security credentials from the set of security credentials to gain access to the resources and data comprised by computer system S_n.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprises:

after said determining that n=N and before said returning the agent software to computer system S₀, determining that the final result is portable,

wherein the agent software returned to computer system S₀ includes the final result.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprises:

after said determining that n=N and before said returning the agent software to computer system S₀, determining that the final result is not portable and in response, moving the final result from within the agent software to a storage location external to the agent software and storing in the agent software a reference that points to the storage location,

wherein the agent software returned to computer system S₀ includes the reference to the storage location and does not include the final result.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein said executing the set of run time instructions I_m (m=1, 2, or N−

1) comprises;

determining to skip migration of the agent software to a next computer system S_next for execution, by one or more processors P_next of the computer system S_next, of a set of run time instructions I_next comprised by the agent software and instead to migrate the agent software to computer system S_m+1.

7. A computer program product, comprising one or more computer-readable storage devices and program instructions stored on the one or more computer-readable storage devices, said program instructions being executable by one or more processing units to implement a method, said one or more processing units including a computer processor of an agent computer system, said method comprising:

acquiring, by the computer processor of the agent computer system from a user computer system S₀ via interaction with a human user at the user computer system S₀, an identification of agent software and a request for the agent software and in response, said agent computer system retrieving the agent software from a repository of agents comprising the agent software and migrating the retrieved agent software to the user computer system S₀, said request for the agent software being in response to a determination that use of the agent software, instead of performing the data processing without use of the agent software, avoids compromise of data integrity of sensitive data and further avoids transfer across a network of personal information, confidential information, and a volume of data that is large enough to cause unacceptable network latency and data propagation delay across the network;

acquiring by the computer processor of the agent computer system from the user computer system S₀ via interaction with the human user at the user computer system S₀, an itinerary, security credentials C₁, C₂, . . . , C_N, and N sets of run time instructions I₁, I₂, . . . , I_N, said N being at least 2, said itinerary specifying a path along which the agent software is to migrate to perform a portion of the data processing, using one or more processors P₁, P₂, . . . , P_N and run time instructions I₁, I₂, . . . , I_N, on computer system S₁, S₂, . . . , S_N, respectively, which appear in a sequential order of S₁, S₂, . . . , S_N on the path, said security credentials C₁, C₂, . . . , C_N being specific to computer system S₁, S₂, . . . , S_N for the agent software to gain access to resources and data comprised by computer system S₁, S₂, . . . , S_N, said security credentials C₁, C₂, . . . , C_N differing from each other if N=2 or differing from one another if N>

2, said one or more processing units including the one or more processors P₁, P₂, . . . , P_N, said program instructions comprising the N sets of run time instructions I₁, I₂, . . . , I_N; and

providing, by the computer processor of the agent computer system to the agent software at the user computer system S_n, the received itinerary, security credentials, and the N sets of run time instructions I₁, I₂, . . . , I_N, which configures the agent software to perform data processing on the computer system S₁, S₂, . . . , S_N.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, said method further comprising:

initializing an index n to 1;

receiving, by the one or more processors P_n of computer system S_n, the agent software from computer system S<sub>n−

1</sub>;

executing, by the one or more processors P_n of the computer system S_n, the set of run time instructions I_n comprised by the agent software, said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprising utilizing resources and data comprised by computer system S_n to generate an output result R_n and storing the output result R_n in the agent software and ascertaining whether n<

N or n=N;

if said ascertaining ascertains that n<

N, then said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprises migrating the agent software to system S_n+1 after which the method comprises performing said receiving and said executing with the index n incremented by 1;

if said ascertaining ascertains that n=N, then said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprises returning the agent software to computer system S₀ for enabling computer system S₀ to obtain a final result comprising the output results R₁, R₂, . . . , R_N.

9. The computer program product of claim 8,

wherein after said receiving the agent software from computer system S_n−

1 and before said utilizing resources and data comprised by computer system S_n, said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprises presenting one or more security credentials from the set of security credentials to gain access to the resources and data comprised by computer system S_n.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprises:

after said determining that n=N and before said returning the agent software to computer system S₀, determining that the final result is portable,

wherein the agent software returned to computer system S₀ includes the final result.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprises:

after said determining that n=N and before said returning the agent software to computer system S₀, determining that the final result is not portable and in response, moving the final result from within the agent software to a storage location external to the agent software and storing in the agent software a reference that points to the storage location,

wherein the agent software returned to computer system S₀ includes the reference to the storage location and does not include the final result.

12. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein said executing the set of run time instructions I_m (m=1, 2, or N−

1) comprises;

determining to skip migration of the agent software to a next computer system S_next for execution, by one or more processors P_next of the computer system S_next, of a set of run time instructions I_next comprised by the agent software and instead to migrate the agent software to computer system S_m+1.

13. A data processing system comprising an agent computer system, one or more processing units including a computer processor of the agent computer system, one or more memories including a memory of the agent computer system, one or more computer-readable storage devices including a computer-readable storage device of the agent computer system, and program instructions stored on the one or more computer-readable storage devices, said program instructions being executable by the one or more processing units via the one or more memories to implement a method, said method comprising:

acquiring, by the computer processor of the agent computer system from a user computer system S₀ via interaction with a human user at the user computer system S₀, an identification of agent software and a request for the agent software and in response, said agent computer system retrieving the agent software from a repository of agents comprising the agent software and migrating the retrieved agent software to the user computer system S₀, said request for the agent software being in response to a determination that use of the agent software, instead of performing the data processing without use of the agent software, avoids compromise of data integrity of sensitive data and further avoids transfer across a network of personal information, confidential information, and a volume of data that is large enough to cause unacceptable network latency and data propagation delay across the network;

acquiring by the computer processor of the agent computer system from the user computer system S₀ via interaction with the human user at the user computer system S₀, an itinerary, security credentials C₀, C₂, . . . , C_N, and N sets of run time instructions I₁, I₂, . . . , I_N, said N being at least 2, said itinerary specifying a path along which the agent software is to migrate to perform a portion of the data processing, using one or more processors P₁, P₂, . . . , P_N and run time instructions I₁, I₂, . . . , I_N, on computer system S₁, S₂, . . . , S_N, respectively, which appear in a sequential order of S₁, S₂, . . . , S_N on the path, said security credentials C₁, C₂, . . . , C_N being specific to computer system S₁, S₂, . . . , S_N for the agent software to gain access to resources and data comprised by computer system S₁, S₂, . . . , S_N, said security credentials C₁, C₂, . . . , C_N differing from each other if N=2 or differing from one another if N>

2, said data processing system including the computer systems S₁, S₂, . . . , S_N, said one or more processing units including the one or more processors P₁, P₂, . . . , P_N, said program instructions comprising the N sets of run time instructions I₁, I₂, . . . , I_N; and

providing, by the computer processor of the agent computer system to the agent software at the user computer system S_n, the received itinerary, security credentials, and the N sets of run time instructions I₁, I₂, . . . , I_N, which configures the agent software to perform data processing on the computer system S₁, S₂, . . . , S_N.

14. The data processing system of claim 13, said method further comprising:

initializing an index n to 1;

receiving, by the one or more processors P_n of computer system S_n, the agent software from computer system S<sub>n−

1</sub>;

executing, by the one or more processors P_n of the computer system S_n, the set of run time instructions I_n comprised by the agent software, said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprising utilizing resources and data comprised by computer system S_n to generate an output result R_n and storing the output result R_n in the agent software and ascertaining whether n<

N or n=N;

if said ascertaining ascertains that n<

N, then said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprises migrating the agent software to system S_n+1 after which the method comprises performing said receiving and said executing with the index n incremented by 1;

if said ascertaining ascertains that n=N, then said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprises returning the agent software to computer system S₀ for enabling computer system S₀ to obtain a final result comprising the output results R₁, R₂, . . . , R_N.

15. The data processing system of claim 14,

wherein after said receiving the agent software from computer system S_n−

1 and before said utilizing resources and data comprised by computer system S_n, said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprises presenting one or more security credentials from the set of security credentials to gain access to the resources and data comprised by computer system S_n.

16. The data processing system of claim 14, wherein said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprises:

after said determining that n=N and before said returning the agent software to computer system S₀, determining that the final result is portable,

wherein the agent software returned to computer system S₀ includes the final result.

17. The data processing system of claim 14, wherein said executing the set of run time instructions I_n comprises:

after said determining that n=N and before said returning the agent software to computer system S₀, determining that the final result is not portable and in response, moving the final result from within the agent software to a storage location external to the agent software and storing in the agent software a reference that points to the storage location,

wherein the agent software returned to computer system S₀ includes the reference to the storage location and does not include the final result.

18. The data processing system of claim 14, wherein said executing the set of run time instructions I_m (m=1, 2, or N−

1) comprises;

determining to skip migration of the agent software to a next computer system S_next for execution, by one or more processors P_next of the computer system S_next, of a set of run time instructions I_next comprised by the agent software and instead to migrate the agent software to computer system S_m+1.