METHOD, APPARATUS AND SYSTEM FOR SERVICE SELECTION, AND CLIENT APPLICATION SERVER

• US 20080313273A1
• Filed: 08/13/2008
• Published: 12/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: WANG, Liangwei
• Granted Patent: US 8,219,688 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

A service selection method, apparatus and system, as well as a client application server are provided. The method includes: obtaining meta information according to contents specified by a client; requesting to query services matched with the meta information to obtain a service list including service identifications of the services matched with the meta information; converting the service list into a format recognizable by the client and providing the converted service list to the client; obtaining a corresponding service identification according to acknowledgement information from the client; requesting interface and address information of a service server corresponding to the corresponding service identification, and providing the interface and address information to the client. In this way, services capable of processing current contents may be found according the contents, and an appropriate service may be selected among the services.

Claims

1. A service selection method, comprising:

obtaining meta information according to contents specified by a client;

requesting to query services matched with the meta information, to obtain a service list comprising service identifications of the services matched with the meta information;

converting the service list into a format recognizable by the client and providing the converted service list to the client;

obtaining a corresponding service identification according to acknowledgement information from the client; and

requesting interface and address information of a service server corresponding to the corresponding service identification, and providing the interface and address information to the client.

2. The service selection method according to claim 1, wherein obtaining the meta information according to the contents specified by the client comprises:

when the contents specified by the client comprises meta information description, extracting meta information according to a format of the contents and converting the meta information into standard meta information description;

when the contents specified by the client does not comprise meta information description, extracting a field utilized as content characteristics in the contents specified by the client, and requesting to obtain meta information corresponding to the field.

3. The service selection method according to claim 2, wherein requesting to obtain meta information corresponding to the field comprises:

querying whether content characteristics represented by the field are general characteristics of the format of the contents; and

if the content characteristics represented by the field are general characteristics of the format of the contents, obtaining meta information according to a relationship between meta information and the general characteristics of the format of the contents; and

/or

querying a preconfigured index relationship between label information and content characteristics according to a user identification and the content characteristics represented by the field, to obtain the label information;

matching meta information registered by services with the label information through statistic and analysis to obtain meta information corresponding to contents specified by the client.

4. The service selection method according to claim 1, wherein before converting the service list into a format recognizable by the client and providing the converted service list to the client, the method further comprises:

reading user configuration information according to user identification saved in advance, filtering the service list if a user has configured service filtering, to obtain a new filtered service list.

5. The service selection method according to claim 4, wherein filtering the service list comprises:

reading a filtering policy according to the user identification, querying various information in the service list according to the filtering policy, filtering and sorting the service list according to a query result, and generating a new filtered service list.

6. The service selection method according to claim 1, wherein requesting to query the services matched with the meta information to obtain the service list comprising the service identifications comprises:

matching a relationship between meta information and services saved in advance with the meta information, querying services meeting match conditions of the meta information according to a matching result, to obtain a service list comprising the service identifications and basic description information of the services.

7. The service selection method according to claim 6, wherein the relationship between meta information and services comprises one or more of the following:

a relationship between meta information and particular services;

a relationship between meta information and services registered by service providers; and

a relationship between meta information and frequently used services.

8. A service selection apparatus, comprising a service selection agent, a service selection server, a meta information registration server and a central controller, wherein:

the service selection agent is adapted to obtain meta information according to contents specified by a client, convert a service list into a format recognizable by the client and provide the converted service list to the client and obtain a corresponding service identification according to acknowledgement information from the client;

request interface and address information of a service server corresponding to the corresponding service identification, and provide the interface and address information to the client;

the service selection server is adapted to send user identification and meta information received from the service selection agent to the meta information registration server via the central controller, requesting the service list based on the contents specified by the client, and send the service list to the service selection agent;

the meta information registration server is adapted to query services matched with the meta information, obtain the service list comprising service identifications, and send the service list to the service selection server via the central controller; and

the central controller is adapted to control requests of the servers, and information transmission between the servers.

9. The service selection apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising:

a meta information extraction server, adapted to save a relationship between meta information and content characteristics and/or relationship between label information and content characteristics, match with the relationships according to a field used as content characteristics in the contents specified by the client and pre-saved user identification to obtain corresponding meta information, and send the corresponding meta information to the service selection server via the central controller.

10. The service selection apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising:

a service filtering server, adapted to read a filtering policy according to pre-saved user identification when receiving a service filtering request from the service selection server, query various information in the service list sent from the service selection server via the central controller according to the filtering policy, filter and sort the service list according to a query result, generate a new filtered service list, and send the new filtered service list to the service selection server via the central controller.

11. The service selection apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the service selection agent comprises:

a contents analysis unit, adapted to collect and analyze the contents specified by the client, extract meta information when the contents specified by the client comprise meta information description; and

extract content characteristics when the contents specified by the client do not comprise meta information description;

an interaction acknowledge unit, adapted to convert the service list into a format recognizable by the client and provide the converted service list to the client, receive the acknowledgement information from the client and obtain the corresponding service identification; and

an interface query unit, adapted to request to obtain the interface and address information of the service server according to the corresponding service identification acknowledged by the client, and send the interface and address information to the client.

12. The service selection apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the contents analysis unit, the interaction acknowledge unit and the interface query unit are in a separated server;

or all or part of the contents analysis unit, the interaction acknowledge unit and the interface query unit are at client side.

13. The service selection apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the service selection server comprises:

a selection control unit, adapted to control process of service selection; and

a service query interface, adapted to send the user identification and the meta information to the meta information registration server, obtain the service list comprising services identifications and basic description information of each service, and send the service list to the service selection agent, under the control of the selection control unit.

14. The service selection apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the service selection server further comprises:

an information management unit, adapted to save and manage user configuration information of service selection; and

a filtering query interface, adapted to send the service list obtained by the service query interface to the service filtering server when the selection control unit reads the user configuration information saved in the information management unit and determines that a user has configured service filtering to obtain a new filtered service list.

15. The service selection apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the meta information registration server comprises:

a service and meta information relationship library, adapted to save and manage relationship between meta information and services;

a service registration information library, adapted to save and manage service identifications and basic description information of services;

a service query engine, adapted to match the relationship saved in the service and meta information relationship library with the meta information, query services meeting match conditions of the meta information according to a query result, search for corresponding basic description information in the service registration information library, and send the service list comprising service identifications and basic description information of the services meeting the match conditions to the service selection server via the central controller; and

a service registration management unit, adapted to an interface for registration of meta information of services.

16. The service selection apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the meta information extraction server comprises:

a content characteristic library, adapted to save and manage the relationship between meta information and content characteristics; and

a characteristic match engine, adapted to match with the relationship between meta information and content characteristics according to the content characteristics and the user identification, to obtain the corresponding meta information, and send the corresponding meta information to the service selection server via the central controller.

17. The service selection apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the meta information extraction server further comprises:

a contents label library, adapted to save and manage the relationship between label information and content characteristics to be used by the characteristic match engine in querying according to the content characteristics and the user identification to obtain a relevant label; and

a label statistic and analysis unit, adapted to correspond labels to meta information registered by services through label statistic and language analysis, to establish the relationship between meta information and label information to be used by the characteristic match engine in matching the obtained relevant label with the meta information registered by services, to obtain the corresponding meta information.

18. The service selection apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the service filtering server comprises:

a filtering policy subscription unit, adapted to configure a personal filtering policy of a user;

a filtering policy library, adapted to save the personal filtering policy of the user; and

a filtering processing unit, adapted to read a filtering policy from the filtering policy library, query various information in the service list according to the filtering policy, filter and sort the service list according to a query result, generate a new filtered service list, and send the new filtered service list to the service selection server via the central controller.

19. The service selection apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the service filtering server further comprises:

an external filtering interface, adapted to provide an interface for external filtering services;

wherein the service list is sent to an external filtering server via the interface, and a filtered service list is returned via the interface after the external filtering server processes the service list.

20. A service selection system, comprising a client application server, a service selection apparatus, and a service registration server;

wherein the service selection apparatus comprises a service selection agent, a service selection server, a meta information registration server and a central controller;

the service selection agent is adapted to obtain meta information according to contents specified by a client, convert a service list into a format recognizable by the client and provide the converted service list to the client and obtain a corresponding service identification according to acknowledgement information from the client;

request interface and address information of a service server corresponding to the corresponding service identification, and provide the interface and address information to the client;

the service selection server is adapted to send user identification and meta information received from the service selection agent to the meta information registration server via the central controller, requesting the service list based on the contents specified by the client, and send the service list to the service selection agent;

the meta information registration server is adapted to query services matched with the meta information, obtain the service list comprising service identifications, and send the service list to the service selection server via the central controller; and

the central controller is adapted to control requests of the servers, and information transmission between the servers.

21. The service selection system according to claim 20, wherein the service selection apparatus further comprises:

a meta information extraction server, adapted to save a relationship between meta information and content characteristics and/or the relationship between label information and content characteristics, match with the relationships according to a field used as content characteristics in the contents specified by the client and pre-saved user identification to obtain corresponding meta information, and send the corresponding meta information to the service selection server via the central controller.

22. The service selection system according to claim 20, wherein the service selection apparatus further comprises:

a service filtering server, adapted to read a filtering policy according to pre-saved user identification when receiving a service filtering request from the service selection server, query various information in the service list sent from the service selection server via the central controller according to the filtering policy, filter and sort the service list according to a query result, generate a new filtered service list, and send the new filtered service list to the service selection server via the central controller.

23. A client application server, comprising:

a transmitting unit, adapted to transmit a service selection request, a selection result, and a service request;

a receiving unit, adapted to receive information carrying a service list, and interface and address information of service servers;

a selection unit, adapted to select an appropriate service according to the information carrying the service list, and send the selection result to the transmitting unit; and

a request generation unit, adapted to generate a service selection request according to specified contents, generate a service request according to the interface and address information of service servers, and send the service selection request and the service request to the transmitting unit.

24. The client application server according to claim 23, wherein selecting an appropriate service according to the information carrying the service list by the selection unit comprises:

selecting a menu option number according to a service menu by the selection unit.