Variable role-specialization among computing devices of computing platforms

• US 10,306,019 B2
• Filed: 08/30/2018
• Issued: 05/28/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Vector Launch, Inc.
• Inventors: Coleman, Shaun, Garber, Darren D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Viet D
• Application Number:
  US16/117,834
• Publication Number:
  US 20190028570A1
• Time in Patent Office: 271 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18504 Aircraft used as relay or high altitude atmospheric platform
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/06 Airborne or Satellite Networks space-based or airborne stations H04B7/185

Abstract

Systems, methods, and software described herein provide enhancements for computing platforms. In one example, a computing platform includes a plurality of computing devices, with one or more of the computing devices comprising specialized roles defined by at least one among software elements and hardware elements targeted to the specialized roles. Individual ones of the computing devices are configured to identify tasks to be serviced using one or more of the specialized roles, determine one or more target computing devices among the plurality of computing devices to handle the tasks based at least in part on attributes of the target computing devices, and transfer at least task instructions for delivery to the target computing devices for performing the tasks.

Claims

1. A computing platform, comprising:

a plurality of computing devices having specialized roles defined at least by presently provisioned software elements and hardware elements that vary among the plurality of computing devices, wherein at least one of the plurality of computing devices is positioned in orbit; and

individual ones of the plurality of computing devices configured to;

maintain attribute scoring metrics that rate one or more computing devices in competency among at least a portion of the specialized roles;

identify tasks to be serviced using one or more of the specialized roles;

based at least in part on the attribute scoring metrics, determine one or more target computing devices that satisfy the one or more of the specialized roles to handle the tasks; and

transfer at least task instructions for delivery to the one or more target computing devices for performing the tasks using at least one among the presently provisioned software elements and hardware elements associated with the one or more of the specialized roles.

2. The computing platform of claim 1, wherein the attribute scoring metrics are stored in a data structure relating identities of the one or more computing devices to competency ratings associated with the specialized roles.

3. The computing platform of claim 1, wherein the specialized roles comprise one or more of a data processing role, a data storage role, an imaging role, a communication routing role, and a virtualized software execution role.

4. The computing platform of claim 1, wherein the task instructions comprise state information related to execution of virtual nodes by the plurality of computing devices, and comprising:

the one or more target computing devices comprising virtualized execution systems configured to receive the state information and execute one or more software applications as virtual nodes according to the state information to perform the task instructions using the at least one among the presently provisioned software elements and hardware elements associated with the one or more of the specialized roles.

5. The computing platform of claim 1, comprising:

the individual ones of the computing devices further configured to transfer the task instructions through one or more peer computing devices of the computing platform to reach the one or more target computing devices; and

responsive to receiving the task instructions, each receiving peer computing device is configured to evaluate received task instructions against one or more specialized role attributes of the receiving peer computing device to determine if the receiving peer computing device has a corresponding specialized role to act in accordance with the task instructions or should instead transfer the task instructions to at least one further peer computing device.

6. The computing platform of claim 1, wherein the tasks to be serviced using the one or more of the specialized roles comprise imaging tasks for a specialized role to capture image data corresponding to an underlying geographic region;

and comprising;

based at least on receipt of the task instructions, a first computing device configured to determine that the first computing device has the specialized role to capture the image data, capture the image data corresponding to the underlying geographic region and transfer the image data for receipt by a second computing device.

7. The computing platform of claim 6, wherein the second computing device corresponds to a specialized role of graphics processing, and comprising:

based at least on receipt of the image data, the second computing device configured to determine that the second computing device has the specialized role of graphics processing, and process the image data to determine processed image data according to at least further task instructions comprising the image data.

8. The computing platform of claim 7, comprising:

the second computing device configured to transfer the processed image data for delivery to a destination through at least a peer computing device having a specialized role corresponding to communication routing.

9. The computing platform of claim 1, wherein the tasks to be serviced using the one or more specialized roles comprise communication routing;

and comprising;

a first computing device having a specialized role of communication routing configured to transfer data associated with the tasks for receipt by a communication system based at least on receipt of the task instructions and data from another computing device.

10. A method of operating a computing platform, the method comprising:

defining specialized roles among a plurality of computing devices, wherein at least one of the plurality of computing devices is positioned in orbit, and wherein the specialized roles are defined based at least on presently provisioned software elements and hardware elements that vary among the plurality of computing devices;

maintaining attribute scoring metrics that rate one or more computing devices in competency among at least a portion of the specialized roles;

identifying tasks to be serviced using one or more of the specialized roles;

based at least in part on the attribute scoring metrics, determining one or more target computing devices that satisfy the one or more of the specialized roles to handle the tasks; and

transferring at least task instructions for delivery to the one or more target computing devices for performing the tasks using at least one among the presently provisioned software elements and hardware elements associated with the one or more of the specialized roles.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the attribute scoring metrics are stored in a data structure relating identities of the one or more computing devices to competency ratings associated with the specialized roles.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the specialized roles comprise one or more of a data processing role, a data storage role, an imaging role, a communication routing role, and a virtualized software execution role.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the task instructions comprise state information related to execution of virtual nodes by virtualized execution systems of the computing devices, and comprising:

in the one or more target computing devices, receiving the state information and executing one or more software applications as associated virtual nodes according to the state information to perform the task instructions using the at least one among the presently provisioned software elements and hardware elements associated with the one or more of the specialized roles.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

transferring the task instructions through one or more peer computing devices of the computing platform to reach the one or more target computing devices; and

responsive to receiving the task instructions by each receiving peer computing device, evaluating received task instructions against the one or more specialized roles of the receiving peer computing device to determine if the receiving peer computing device has a corresponding specialized role to act in accordance with the task instructions or should instead transfer the task instructions to at least one further peer computing.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the tasks to be serviced using the one or more of the specialized roles comprise imaging tasks for a specialized role to capture image data corresponding to an underlying geographic region;

and further comprising;

based at least on receipt of the task instructions in a first computing device, determining that the first computing device has the specialized role to capture the image data, capturing the image data corresponding to the underlying geographic region, and transferring the image data for receipt by a second computing device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein an attribute of the second computing device corresponds to a specialized role of graphics processing, and further comprising:

based at least on receipt of the image data in the second computing device, determining that the second computing device has the specialized role of graphics processing, and processing the image data to determine processed image data according to at least further task instructions comprising the image data.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

in the second computing device, transferring the processed image data for delivery to a destination through at least a peer computing device having a specialized role corresponding to communication routing.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the tasks to be serviced using the one or more specialized roles comprise communication routing;

and further comprising;

based at least on receipt of the task instructions and data transferred by another computing device, in a first computing device having a specialized role of communication routing, transferring data associated with the tasks for receipt by a target communication system.

19. A computing device, comprising:

a communication system configured to receive task descriptions and associated data from at least one peer computing device;

a task execution system configured to identify specialized roles indicated in the task descriptions and determine if the computing device supports one or more of the specialized roles for processing the associated data based at least on a present provisioning of software elements and hardware elements in the computing device;

based at least on the computing device supporting the one or more of the specialized roles, the task execution system configured to execute one or more tasks for processing the associated data in accordance with associated task descriptions;

based at least on the computing device not supporting the one or more of the specialized roles, the task execution system configured to instruct the communication system to transfer the associated task descriptions and the associated data for delivery to a further peer computing device supporting the one or more of the specialized roles, wherein the further peer computing device is selected from among a plurality of computing devices having specialized roles defined at least by presently provisioned software elements and hardware elements that vary among the plurality of computing devices; and

wherein at least one among the computing device, the at least one peer computing device, and the further peer computing device is positioned in orbit.

20. The computing device of claim 19, wherein the associated data comprise state information related to execution of virtual nodes by the task execution system of the computing device, and comprising:

based at least on the computing device supporting the one or more of the specialized roles, the task execution system configured to execute one or more software applications as associated virtual nodes according to the state information; and

based at least on the computing device not supporting the one or more of the specialized roles, the task execution system configured to transfer the state information related to execution of virtual nodes for delivery to the further peer computing device.