Role differentiation for task servicing in computing platforms

• US 10,659,564 B2
• Filed: 05/24/2019
• Issued: 05/19/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Inventors: Coleman, Shaun, Garber, Darren D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Viet D
• Application Number:
  US16/422,584
• Publication Number:
  US 20190289096A1
• Time in Patent Office: 361 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 device is configured to maintain attribute scoring metrics that rate target computing devices in competency among at least a portion of roles defined at least by presently provisioned software elements and hardware elements. The computing device is configured to identify tasks to be serviced using one or more of the roles, and 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 roles to handle the tasks. The computing device is configured to 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 roles.

Claims

1. A computing system, comprising:

a computing device comprising an orbital satellite device configured to;

maintain attribute scoring metrics that rate target computing devices in competency among at least a portion of roles defined at least by presently provisioned software elements and hardware elements;

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

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

3. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the 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 system of claim 1, wherein the task instructions comprise state information related to execution of virtual nodes, 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 roles.

5. The computing system of claim 1, comprising:

the computing device further configured to transfer the task instructions through one or more peer computing devices of the computing system to reach the one or more target computing devices; and

wherein responsive to receiving the task instructions, each receiving peer computing device is configured to evaluate received task instructions against one or more role attributes of the receiving peer computing device to determine if the receiving peer computing device has a corresponding 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 system of claim 1, wherein the tasks to be serviced using the one or more of the roles comprise imaging tasks for a role to capture image data corresponding to an underlying geographic region;

and comprising;

based at least on receipt of the task instructions, the computing device configured to determine that the computing device has the 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 system of claim 6, wherein the second computing device corresponds to a role of graphics processing, and wherein based at least on receipt of the image data, the second computing device is configured to determine that the second computing device has the 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 system of claim 7, wherein the second computing device is configured to transfer the processed image data for delivery to a destination through at least a peer computing device having a role corresponding to communication routing.

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

and comprising;

the computing device having a 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 system, the method comprising:

maintaining attribute scoring metrics that rate one or more computing devices comprising orbital satellite devices in competency among at least a portion of roles defined based at least on presently provisioned software elements and hardware elements;

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

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the 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, and wherein the one or more target computing devices receive the state information and execute 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 roles.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

transferring the task instructions through one or more peer computing devices of the computing system to reach the one or more target computing devices, wherein responsive to receiving the task instructions, each receiving peer computing device is configured to evaluate received task instructions against the one or more roles of the receiving peer computing device to determine if the receiving peer computing device has a corresponding 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 roles comprise imaging tasks for a role to capture image data corresponding to an underlying geographic region;

and further comprising;

based at least on receipt of the task instructions in the computing device, determining that the computing device has the 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 role of graphics processing, and wherein based at least on receipt of the image data, the second computing device is configured to determine that the second computing device has the 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.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the second computing device is configured to transfer the processed image data for delivery to a destination through at least a peer computing device having a role corresponding to communication routing.

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

and further comprising;

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

19. A computing device comprising an orbital satellite device, comprising:

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

a task execution system configured to process the task descriptions to determine if the computing device supports processing an associated task 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 processing the associated task, the task execution system configured to execute the associated task in accordance with associated task descriptions;

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

20. The computing device of claim 19, wherein the task descriptions 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 processing the associated task, the task execution system configured to execute one or more software applications as associated virtual nodes according to the state information.