Evaluation systems and methods for coordinating software agents

• US 20080072241A1
• Filed: 12/15/2006
• Published: 03/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MEC Management, LLC (Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota)
• Original Assignee: Searete LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Cohen, Alexander J., Mangione-Smith, William Henry, Lord, Robert W., Jung, Edward K.Y., Levien, Royce A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,627,402 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/317
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/048 mobile agents
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security

Abstract

A device, method, computer program product, and network subsystem are described for associating a first mobile agent with a first security policy and a second mobile agent with a second security policy or for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent and for evaluating a received message at least in response to an indication of the first security policy and to an indication of the second security policy or for deploying the first agent.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent; and

deploying the first agent.

2. The method of claim 1 in which providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

implementing a situation-dependent logic table in the first agent.

3. The method of claim 1 in which providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

transmitting the second agent to a processing core.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a security policy update.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving situational data from the second agent.

6. The method of claim 1 in which providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

receiving a mobile software agent as the first agent.

7. The method of claim 1 in which providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

configuring the first agent with policy update code.

8. The method of claim 1 in which deploying the first agent comprises:

deploying the first agent to a first core operable to transmit a signal to a location of the second agent substantially directly via a passive medium.

9. A first method comprising:

performing a reception of or a transmission of one or more instructions relating to a second method including;

providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent; and

deploying the first agent.

10. The first method of claim 9 in which performing a reception of or a transmission of one or more instructions relating to a second method comprises:

performing a reception of or a transmission of one or more instructions relating to deploying the first agent.

11. A method comprising:

providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent by obtaining one or more risk indicators in the situational information about the first agent and about the second agent and by including at least code for receiving a capacity indicator of the situational information;

deploying the first agent to a first core operable to transmit a signal to a location of the second agent substantially directly via a passive medium; and

receiving situational data about the second agent via the first agent.

12. A network subsystem comprising:

means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent; and

means for deploying the first agent.

13. The network subsystem of claim 12 in which the means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

means for associating the second agent with a remote location.

14. The network subsystem of claim 12 in which the means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

means for sending an inquiry to a network location; and

means for receiving data from the network location.

15. The network subsystem of claim 12 in which the means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

means for deploying a mobile software agent as the second agent.

16. The network subsystem of claim 12 in which the means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

means for transmitting the second agent to a processing core.

17. The network subsystem of claim 12 further comprising:

means for generating the situational information at least partly based on an agent output.

18. The network subsystem of claim 12 further comprising:

sending a signal to the first agent.

19. The network subsystem of claim 12 further comprising:

means for receiving situational data about the second agent via the first agent.

20. The network subsystem of claim 12 in which the means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

means for obtaining one or more risk indicators in the situational information about the first agent and about the second agent.

21. The network subsystem of claim 12 in which the means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

means for including at least code for receiving a capacity indicator of the situational information.

22. The network subsystem of claim 12 in which the means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

means for obtaining the code for responding to the situational information about the first agent and about the second agent before obtaining the first agent.

23. The network subsystem of claim 12 in which the means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

means for configuring the first agent with policy update code.

24. The network subsystem of claim 12 in which the means for deploying the first agent comprises:

means for deploying the first agent to a first core able to communicate with the second agent.

25. The network subsystem of claim 12 in which the means for deploying the first agent comprises:

means for deploying the first agent locally.

26. The network subsystem of claim 12 in which the means for deploying the first agent comprises:

means for deploying the first agent to a first location in response to an association between a second location and the second agent.