Supporting application effectiveness in a network environment

• US 20070297447A1
• Filed: 02/06/2007
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Purpura, William
• Granted Patent: US 7,817,536 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/468
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/16 in which the time allocation to individual channels within a transmission cycle is variable, e.g. to accommodate varying complexity of signals, to vary number of channels transmitted H04J3/17, H04J3/24 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/22 in which the sources have different rates or codes simultaneous speech and digital data or video transmission H04M11/06; see provisional also H04J3/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76

Abstract

A system for performing an application in a network-centric environment using capabilities attributed to the application. Each capability is assigned one or more priorities for the application. At least one node is configured to identify a change in the capabilities and negotiate in the network-centric environment to resolve the change. Nodes are may negotiate until the application is provided with resources resolving the change in accordance with applicable priorities. This method provides a self-healing capability in a net-centric environment. Thus an application may be enabled to continue even under rapidly changing circumstances.

Claims

1. A system for performing an application in a network-centric environment using one or more capabilities attributed to the application, each capability assigned one or more priorities for the application, the system comprising at least one node configured to:

identify a change in the one or more capabilities; and

negotiate in the network-centric environment to resolve the change;

the node further configured to negotiate until the application is provided with one or more resources resolving the change in accordance with one or more applicable priorities.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more capabilities is qualified by one or more performance parameters, and the at least one node is configured to negotiate to resolve the change in accordance with one or more applicable performance parameters.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more capabilities includes one or more functionality levels, and the at least one node is configured to negotiate to resolve the change in accordance with one or more applicable functionality levels.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one node is configured to modify one or more priorities to resolve the change.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more capabilities are hierarchically ordered, and the at least one node is configured to negotiate as to each of the one or more capabilities in the hierarchical order.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more capabilities include at least interoperability.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more resources comprise at least one of the following:

storage, processing, bandwidth and an input/output port.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one node is configured to modify one or more functionality levels to resolve the change.

9. A method of performing an application in a network-centric environment using one or more capabilities attributed to the application, each capability qualified by one or more performance parameters for the application, the method comprising:

identifying a change in the one or more capabilities; and

negotiating in the network-centric environment to resolve the change, the negotiating performed until the application is provided with one or more resources resolving the change in accordance with the one or more performance parameters.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the one or more capabilities is assigned one or more priorities, the method further comprising performing the negotiating until the change is resolved in accordance with one or more applicable priorities.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising modifying one or more priorities to resolve the change.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising, based on a probability of effectiveness, canceling the application.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more network capabilities are hierarchically ordered, the negotiating performed as to each of the one or more capabilities in the hierarchical order.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the application is provided with one or more resources in accordance with one or more functionality levels of the one or more capabilities.

15. A method of performing an application in a network-centric environment using one or more capabilities attributed to the application, each capability including one or more functionality levels for the application, the method comprising:

identifying a change in the one or more capabilities; and

negotiating in the network-centric environment based on the one or more functionality levels to resolve the change, the negotiating performed until the application is provided with one or more resources resolving the change.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising negotiating to resolve the change in accordance with one or more performance parameters qualifying the one or more capabilities.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising negotiating to resolve the change in accordance with one or more applicable priorities.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising modifying one or more priorities to resolve the change.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising negotiating to resolve the change based on a probability of effectiveness.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more capabilities are hierarchically ordered, the negotiating performed as to each of the one or more capabilities in the hierarchical order.

21. A method of self-healing in a network having a plurality of applications, each application having one or more capabilities, each capability having one or more performance parameters and a priority for each of one or more resources needed for implementing the capability, the method comprising:

monitoring the network and detecting a change;

testing capabilities in a predefined order to identify an affected network capability; and

recursively determining a solution for the affected capability and verifying in a predefined order that the solution supports the capabilities, if any, that support the affected capability.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the verifying comprises ensuring that the performance parameters of the supporting capabilities, if any, are satisfied.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising acquiring a resource based on the determined solution.

24. The method of claim 23, the acquiring further comprising negotiating with other applications for a resource based on the determined solution.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the predefined order is based on a hierarchical order of the capabilities.