Updating mobile agents
First Claim
1. A method for updating a first mobile agent (MA) providing at least one service, wherein the first MA resides in a site in a data communications network, the method comprising the steps of:
- creating a second MA;
moving the second MA to the site of the first MA;
customising the data of the second MA;
verifying if the first MA is running any services; and
if so, waiting for the services to stop running;
when no services are running, deactivating the first MA and activating the second MA.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
The invention relates to various embodiments of a method for updating a mobile agent (MA) providing services. The MA resides in a site in a data communications network. In a preferred embodiment a new MA, comprising the desired services, is created. The new MA moves to the site of the old MA where its data is customised. The method then waits until none of the old services in the old MA is running before it deactivates the old MA and activates the new MA. In addition, two further embodiments are provided. Furthermore, an interface manager (IM) for use with interpreted object-oriented programs is provided. The IM acts as a proxy for inter-object calls and has a redirection table in order to redirect object calls to objects that replaced old objects. Also, a method for updating an MA with an IM is provided.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. A method for updating a first mobile agent (MA) providing at least one service, wherein the first MA resides in a site in a data communications network, the method comprising the steps of:
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creating a second MA;
moving the second MA to the site of the first MA;
customising the data of the second MA;
verifying if the first MA is running any services; and
if so, waiting for the services to stop running;
when no services are running, deactivating the first MA and activating the second MA.
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2. A method for updating a first mobile agent (MA) providing at least one service, wherein the first MA resides in a site in a data communications network, the method comprising the steps of:
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creating a second MA;
customising the data of the second MA;
noting which services are running;
stopping the running services;
deactivating the first MA;
sending a notification to the second MA;
moving the second MA to the site of the first MA;
activating the second MA; and
restarting the services that were stopped.
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3. A method for updating a first mobile agent (MA) providing at least one service, wherein the first MA resides in a site in a data communications network, the method comprising the steps of:
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creating a second MA;
customising the data of the second MA;
verifying if the first MA is running any services; and
if so, waiting for the services to stop running;
when no services are running, deactivating the first MA;
sending a notification to the second MA;
moving the second MA to the site of the first MA; and
activating the second MA.
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4. A method for updating a mobile agent (MA), the MA being at least partially programmed as classes of an interpreted object-oriented language, the MA providing at least one service and where no part that is to be updated is active, the method comprising the steps of:
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creating new classes;
moving the classes to the MA;
customising the data for the new classes; and
putting each new class in its proper place. - View Dependent Claims (5)
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6. A method for updating a mobile agent (MA), the MA being at least partially programmed as classes of an interpreted object-oriented language, the MA providing at least one service and where no part that is to be updated is active, the method comprising the steps of:
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creating new classes;
customising the data for the new classes;
moving the classes to the MA; and
putting each new class in its proper place. - View Dependent Claims (7)
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8. An interface manager (IM) for handling object calls in a object-oriented language, the IM comprising:
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a redirection table for providing a translation of a first object call; and
a call handler for;
receiving a first object call from a first object;
requesting a translation of the first object call from the redirection table;
calling a second object using the translation of the first object call;
receiving a result from the second object; and
forwarding the result to the first object. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10)
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11. A method for updating a mobile agent (MA), the MA being at least partially programmed as classes of an interpreted object-oriented language, the method comprising the steps of:
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creating an update message;
sending the update message to the MA;
storing information from the update message in the MA; and
updating classes and objects in the MA using the stored information. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification