Message handling method, Message handling apparatus, and memory media for storing a message handling apparatus controlling program

• US 6,338,081 B1
• Filed: 06/05/1998
• Issued: 01/08/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Nakda, Akifumi, Suzuki, Toshihiro, Furusawa, Osamu, Tsuchitani, Hajime
• Primary Examiner(s): Harrell, Robert B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): YUAN, ALMARI ROMERO
• Application Number:
  US09/092,130
• Publication Number:
  US 20010054105A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,313 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/206, 709/223, 709/303, 709/317, 707/201
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0226 Mapping or translating multiple network management protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components

Abstract

The broker agent asks a facilitator agent to locate a service provider agent which is involved in its own job. The broker agent, upon receiving from a regular agent a message packet indicating a request for mediation of a job, analyzes the message packet to judge the outline of the requested job and applies certain conversion to the request message for sending it to the service provider agent which is relevant to the request. The broker agent receives a reply from the service provider agent and sends it to the regular agent after applying certain conversion.

Claims

1. A message processing method for execution by an agent community which includes a regular agent for sending a message packet to request processing of said message packet, a plurality of service provider agents for processing said message packet and a facilitator agent for maintaining service provider agent access information and service provider agent classification information, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving, by a broker agent which mediates a job for one or more regular agents, a message packet sent from a particular regular agent;

(b) inquiring of said facilitator agent, by said broker agent, to determine whether or not a service provider agent having a predetermined service provider classification information available; and

(c) sending, by said broker agent, a message which contains a content of said message packet to the determined available service provider agent.

2. A message processing method for execution by an agent community which includes a regular agent for sending a message packet and a request to process said message packet, a plurality of service provider agents for processing said message packet and a facilitator agent for maintaining service provider agent access information and service provider agent classification information, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving, by a broker agent which mediates a job for one or more regular agents, a message packet sent from a particular regular agent;

(b) determining, by said broker agent, whether or not said received message packet conforms to a predetermined format;

(c) inquiring of said facilitator agent, by said broker agent, to determine whether or not a service provider agent having a predetermined service provider classification information is available;

(d) converting, by said broker agent, said received message packet so as to correspond to said available service provider agent; and

(e) sending, by said broker agent, said converted message packet to said determined available service provider agent.

3. A message processing method for execution by an agent community which includes a regular agent for sending a message packet to request processing of said message packet, a plurality of service provider agents for processing said message packet and a broker agent which mediates a job for one or more regular agents and which retains a broker advertise table for maintaining service provider agent access information that specifies a service provider agent having a predetermined service provider agent classification information, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving, by said broker agent, a message packet sent from a particular regular agent, wherein said sent message packet includes a particular service provider agent classification;

(b) determining, by said broker agent, whether or not a service provider agent having said particular service provider agent classification is available by consulting the broker advertise table; and

(c) sending a content of said message packet to said determined available service provider agent.

4. The message processing method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of dynamically updating said broker advertise table so that said broker agent is automatically aware of additional service provider agents having said particular service provider agent classification.

5. The message processing method according to claim 4, wherein the step of dynamically updating further comprises the steps of:

sending, by the broker agent, a subscribe request to a facilitator agent with which service provider agents register their service provider agent access information and classification information, wherein said subscribe request notifies said facilitator agent to automatically tell said broker agent of any additional service provider agents that register and which register their service provider agent classification information as being said predetermined service provider agent classification information; and

automatically sending a notification, by the facilitator agent, to tell said broker agent when an additional service provider agent registers its service provider agent classification information as being said predetermined service provider agent classification information, wherein said automatically sent notification further comprises said additional service provider agent'"'"'s access information.

6. The message processing method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of statically updating said broker advertise table, further comprising the steps of:

requesting, by said broker agent, a facilitator agent with which service provider agents register their service provider agent access information and classification information to tell said broker agent of any registered service provider agents which registered their service provider agent classification information as being said predetermined service provider agent classification information; and

sending service provider agent access information to said broker agent, by said facilitator agent, for each registered service provider agent which registered said predetermined service provider agent classification information.

7. A message processing method for execution by an agent community which includes a regular agent for sending a message packet to request processing of said message packet, a plurality of service provider agents for processing said message packet and a broker agent which a job for one or more regular agents and which retains a broker advertise table for maintaining service provider agent access information that specifies a service provider agent having a predetermined service provider agent classification information, said method comprising the steps of;

(a) receiving, by said broker agent, a message packet sent from a particular regular agent, wherein said sent message packet includes a particular service provider agent classification;

(b) determining, by said broker agent, whether or not a service provider agent having said particular service provider agent classification is available by consulting the broker advertise table;

(c) sending, by said broker agent, a content of said message packet to said determined available service provider agent;

(d) receiving, by said broker agent, a response message packet from said determined available service provider agent; and

(e) converting, by said broker agent, said received response message packet for forwarding to said particular regular agent.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein:

said determining step determines a plurality of available service provider agents;

said sending step sends said message packet content to said plurality of available service provider agents;

said receiving a response message packet step receives said response message packet from each of said plurality of service provider agents, each of said response message packets being a processing result of processing said sent message packet; and

said converting step converts said plurality of received message packets into a combined list;

and further comprising the step of sending said combined list in a single response message to said particular regular agent.

9. A message processing method for execution by an agent community which includes a regular agent for sending a message packet to request processing of said message packet, a plurality of service provider agents for processing said message packet and a facilitator agent for maintaining service provider agent access information and service provider agent classification information, said method comprising the steps of;

(a) receiving, by a broker agent which mediates a job for one or more regular agents, a message packet sent from a particular regular agent;

(b) analyzing said received message packet, by said broker agent, to determine the service provider agent classification information contained therein;

(c) locating, by said broker agent, a service provider agent which corresponds to the determined service provider agent classification information;

(d) converting, by said broker agent, said received message packet; and

(e) sending, by said broker agent, said converted message packet to the located service provider agent.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

(f) receiving a response message packet from said located service provider agent;

(g) converting said received response message packet; and

(h) returning said converted response message packet to said particular regular agent.

11. A community system which controls a plurality of service provider agents for processing a message packet sent from a regular agent, said system comprising;

(a) a facilitator agent for maintaining service provider agent access information and service provider agent classification information; and

(b) a broker agent for;

(b-1) receiving a message packet sent from said regular agent;

(b-2) inquiring of said facilitator agent to determine whether or not a service provider agent having a predetermined service provider agent classification information is available; and

(b-3) sending data including a content of said message packet to said determined available service provider agent.

12. The agent community system as claimed in claim 11, wherein:

a result of said inquiring indicates that a plurality of service provider agents having said predetermined service provider agent classification information are available; and

said sending data sends to each of said plurality of service provider agents; and

wherein said broker further comprises;

(b-4) receiving a response message packet from each of said plurality of service provider agents, said response message packets being a processing result of said sent data;

(b-5) converting said received response messages into a single response; and

(b-5) sending said single response message packet to said regular agent.

13. An agent community system comprising:

a broker agent for;

(a) receiving a message packet sent from a regular agent, wherein said message packet contains a reference to a particular service provider agent classification;

(b) retaining a broker advertise table for maintaining service provider agent access information which specifies a service provider agent having predetermined service provider agent information, for each of a plurality of service provider agents which process message packets in said system;

(c) determining whether or not a service provider agent having said particular service provider agent classification is available by consulting said broker advertise table; and

(d) sending data including a content of said message packet to said determined available service provider agent.

14. The agent community system according to claim 13, wherein said broker agent further dynamically updates said broker advertise table so that said broker agent is automatically aware of additional service provider agents having said particular service provider agent classification.

15. The agent community system according to claim 14, wherein said dynamically updating further comprises:

sending, by the broker agent, a subscribe request to a facilitator agent with which service provider agents register their service provider agent access information and classification information, wherein said subscribe request notifies said facilitator agent to automatically tell said broker agent of any additional service provider agents that register and which meet particular criteria defined in the subscribe request; and

automatically sending a notification, by the facilitator agent, to tell said broker agent when an additional service provider agent which meets said particular criteria registers, wherein said automatically sent notification further comprises said additional service provider agent'"'"'s access information and classification information.

16. The agent community system according to claim 15, wherein said particular criteria is said predetermined service provider agent information.

17. The agent community system according to claim 13, wherein said broker agent further statically updates said broker advertise table, said statically updating further comprising:

requesting, by said broker agent, a facilitator agent with which service provider agents register their service provider agent access information and classification information to tell said broker agent of any registered service provider agents which registered said predetermined service provider agent information; and

sending service provider agent access information to said broker agent, by said facilitator agent, for each registered service provider agent which registered said predetermined service provider agent information.

18. The agent community system according to claim 17, wherein said statically updating further comprises sending service provider agent classification information to said broker agent, by said facilitator agent, for each registered service provider agent which registered said predetermined service provider agent information.

19. A message processor comprising an agent community including a regular agent for sending a message packet to request processing of said message packet, a plurality of service provider agents for processing said message packet and a facilitator agent for maintaining service provider agent access information and service provider agent classification information, said processor comprising:

(a) means for receiving, by a broker agent which mediates jobs for one or more regular agents, a message packet sent from a particular one of said regular agents;

(b) means for analyzing, by said broker agent, said received message packet to determine a particular service provider agent classification contained therein;

(c) means for locating by said broker agent, a service provider agent corresponding to said particular service provider agent classification;

(d) means for converting, by said broker agent, said received message packet; and

(e) means for sending, by said broker agent, said converted message packet to said located service provider agent.

20. The message processor as claimed in claim 19, wherein:

said means for locating locates a plurality of service provider agents; and

said means for sending sends said converted message packet to each of said plurality of service provider agents, and further comprising;

(f) means for receiving, by said broker agent, a response message packet from each of said plurality of service provider agents, each of said response message packets being a processing result of said sent converted message packets;

(g) means for converting, by said broker agent, said received response message packets into a single response message; and

(h) means for sending, by said broker agent, said single response message to said regular agent.