Dynamic synchronous collaboration framework for mobile agents

• US 6,065,039 A
• Filed: 11/04/1997
• Issued: 05/16/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology Center America, Inc. (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Paciorek, Noemi
• Primary Examiner(s): Dinh, Dung C.
• Application Number:
  US08/964,444
• Time in Patent Office: 924 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/202, 709/213, 709/248, 709/303, 709/304, 709/300
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4862 the task being a mobile agent, i.e. specifically designed to migrate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A dynamic synchronous collaboration framework utilizes a distributed synchronization point to permit synchronous collaboration of mobile agent objects in a distributed computer system. The framework simplifies agent collaboration for applications which divide a complex problem into multiple tasks and delegate tasks to multiple mobile agents. The collaboration framework also enables mobile agents within an application to perform synchronous collaboration with affiliated agents in the native language of an associated software application. Such collaboration is accomplished by joining collaborating agents to an agent group. Member agents periodically correlate results through a collaborative sharing within the agent group, and may adopt new behaviors based on the results of the collaboration.

Claims

1. In a computer network including at least a first computer node and a second computer node, a mechanism for sharing information in said network comprising:

a plurality of mobile agent objects launched by an application in the first computer node and joined to a group, each mobile agent having at least one task assigned thereto; and

a distributed synchronization point at which the mobile agents collaborate by sharing data;

said mobile agent objects being operable to migrate from said first computer node to at least one other computer node within the computer network, to perform computations, and collaboratively share information derived from the computations through the distributed synchronization point.

2. The mechanism of claim 1 wherein the mobile agent objects collaborate in a language which is native to the launching application.

3. The mechanism of claim 1 wherein multiple collaborations are executed through the distributed synchronization point.

4. The mechanism of claim 1 wherein at least one mobile agent object adopts a new behavior based upon the collaboratively shared information.

5. The mechanism of claim 1 wherein such framework is implemented in an object oriented language.

6. The mechanism of claim 5 wherein such object oriented language is selected from the group consisting of Java and C++.

7. The mechanism of claim 1 wherein the distributed synchronization point is implemented with an object transport mechanism.

8. The mechanism of claim 1 wherein the distributed synchronization point is implemented with an RPC mechanism.

9. The mechanism of claim 1 wherein at least one mobile agent object includes a method which is called during collaboration for data analysis.

10. The mechanism of claim 1 wherein the group stores a persistent record indicating a current location for each mobile agent object within such group.

11. The mechanism of claim 10 wherein the group stores a persistent record indicating a current state for each mobile agent object within such group.

12. The mechanism of claim 1 wherein the group includes a function which sends a hail message for establishing contact with at least one mobile agent object.

13. The mechanism of claim 12 wherein the hail function is executed through an agent manager.

14. The mechanism of claim 13 wherein the group includes a routine for broadcasting events to mobile agent objects associated with the group.

15. The mechanism of claim 14 wherein an event indicating collaboration failure is broadcast by the group when an associated agent object fails to respond to the hail message.

16. The mechanism of claim 14 wherein an event indicating deadlock is broadcast by the group when the group determines that a mobile agent object has entered a collaboration state but has not arrived at the synchronization point.

17. The mechanism of claim 11 wherein each mobile agent object is associated with a group proxy through which such agent communicates with the group.

18. The mechanism of claim 17 wherein at least one such group proxy re-creates the group by employing the persistent records indicating current state and location for each mobile agent object within such group upon making a determination that the group has prematurely ceased operation.

19. A method for sharing information between mobile agent objects in a computer network including at least a first computer node having a software application, comprising the steps of:

generating a plurality of mobile agent objects from the software application in the first computer node;

assigning a task to each mobile agent object;

joining at least a portion of said plurality of mobile agent objects to a group;

forwarding the joined mobile agent objects from said first computer node to at least one other computer node within said network, the mobile agent objects performing computations in the at least one other computer node; and

sharing information derived from the performed computations between the joined mobile agent objects by forming a distributed synchronization point at which the mobile agents share with other mobile agent objects within said group.

20. The method of claim 19 including the further step of the mobile agent objects collaborating in a language which is native to the launching application.

21. The method of claim 19 including the further step of executing multiple collaborations through the distributed synchronization point.

22. The method of claim 19 including the further step of at least one mobile agent object adopting a new behavior based upon the collaboratively shared information.

23. The method of claim 19 including the further step of implementing the framework in an object oriented language.

24. The method of claim 23 inducing the further step of implementing the framework in a language selected from the group consisting of Java and C++.

25. The method of claim 19 including the further step of implementing the distributed synchronization point with an object transport mechanism.

26. The method of claim 19 including the further step of implementing the distributed synchronization point with an RPC mechanism.

27. The method of claim 19 including the further step of calling a method by at least one mobile agent object during collaboration for data analysis.

28. The method of claim 19 including the further step of storing a persistent record indicating a current location for each mobile agent object within such group.

29. The method of claim 28 including the further step of storing a persistent record indicating a current state for each mobile agent object within such group.

30. The method of claim 19 including the further step of the group sending a hail message for establishing contact with at least one mobile agent object.

31. The method of claim 30 including the further step of executing the hail function through an agent manager.

32. The method of claim 31 including the further step of broadcasting events to mobile agent objects associated with the group.

33. The method of claim 32 including the further step of broadcasting an event indicating collaboration failure when an agent object associated with the group fails to respond to the hail message.

34. The method of claim 33 including the further step of broadcasting an event indicating deadlock when the group determines that a mobile agent object has entered a collaboration state but has not arrived at the synchronization point.

35. The method of claim 29 including associating each mobile agent object with a group proxy through which such agent communicates with the group.

36. The method of claim 35 including the further step of a group proxy re-creating the group by employing the persistent records indicating current state and location for each mobile agent object within such group upon making a determination that the group has prematurely ceased operation.

37. A method for sharing information in a computer network of nodes, each node having an associated destination, comprising the steps of:

migrating a plurality of agents among the nodes according to destination associated with each agent;

executing each agent in a corresponding destination node when the agent arrives at the destination node to produce the information;

identifying one of the nodes as a synchronization point node; and

migrating the agents to the synchronization point node in response to a request to collaborate message received by the agents;

passing the information among the agents when the agents arrive at the synchronization point node.