Information access apparatus and method for cooperatively sharing knowledge about information source

• US 6,480,881 B1
• Filed: 12/03/1996
• Issued: 11/12/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Kubota, Kazumi, Ishikawa, Hiroshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Courtenay, III, St. John
• Assistant Examiner(s): BULLOCK JR, LEWIS ALEXANDER
• Application Number:
  US08/760,141
• Time in Patent Office: 2,170 Days
• Field of Search: 395/683, 395/682, 395/685, 395/680, 395/200.32, 709/202, 709/317, 707/2, 707/3
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24524 Access plan code generation and invalidation; Reuse of access plans
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

An agent generated based on a request made by a user accesses an object server on a wide area network to obtain necessary information. If sufficient information cannot be obtained from a database in a certain server, the agent obtains knowledge about an information source previously accessed by another agent by referencing a path information table, and accesses another server based on the knowledge. Thus, the information collection is made more efficient by making the most of the knowledge of other agents.

Claims

1. An information access apparatus for use in a distributed information system having a plurality of information sources updated autonomically and linked by a communications network, comprising:

an agent generator generating a first agent section that moves around the communications network and obtains at a destination knowledge about a path including at least one information source accessed by a second agent section moving around the communications network and autonomically collecting information on the communications network, among the plurality of information sources, each one of the plurality of information sources storing information independently and updated autonomically, the knowledge including keyword information which indicates a search condition about information searched for by the second agent section, determines an information source to be accessed using the knowledge as path information to the information source to be accessed if the keyword information of the second agent section partially matches keyword information which indicates a search condition about information searched for by the first agent section, moves to a determined information source and obtains information from the determined information source, the agent generator delegating the first agent section to the destination through the communications network; and

an output device outputting the information that the first agent section collects when the first agent section returns to the information access apparatus.

2. The information access apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an input device inputting a request from a user to said agent generator, wherein said agent generator generates the first agent section based on the request.

3. An information access apparatus for use in a distributed information system which possesses a plurality of information sources updated autonomically managing arbitrary objects and autonomically operated on a communications network, and collects information by delegating an artificial agent section to an arbitrary information source, comprising:

a connecting device connecting to the communications network; and

a sharing device making a plurality of agent section, that move around the communications network, cooperatively share knowledge about a path including at least one information source among the plurality of information sources, each one of the plurality of information sources storing information independently and updated autonomically, the knowledge including keyword information which indicates a search condition about information searched for by each of the plurality of agent sections and each agent section determining and moving to an information source to be accessed using the knowledge as path information to the information source to be accessed if the keyword information of each agent section partially matches keyword information which indicates a search condition about information searched for by another agent section, to facilitate a search for and an access to any of the plurality of information sources made by each of the plurality of agent sections.

4. A computer-readable storage medium, when used by a computer in a distributed information system having a plurality of information sources updated autonomically linked by a communications network, used to direct the computer to perform:

generating a first agent section that moves around the communications network and obtains at a destination knowledge about a path including at least one information source accessed by a second agent section moving around the communications network and autonomically collecting information on the communications network, among the plurality of information sources, each one of the plurality of information sources storing information independently and updated autonomically, the knowledge including keyword information which indicates a search condition about information searched for by the second agent section, determines an information source to be accessed using the knowledge as path information to the information source to be accessed if the keyword information of the second agent section partially matches keyword information which indicates a search condition about information searched for by the first agent section, moves to a determined information source and obtains information from the determined information source based on the knowledge;

delegating the first agent section to the destination through the communications network; and

outputting information that the first agent section collects when the first agent section returns to the computer.

5. A computer-readable storage medium, when used by a computer in a distributed information system which possesses a plurality of information sources updated autonomically managing arbitrary objects and autonomically operated on a communications network, and collects information by delegating an artificial agent section to an arbitrary information source, used to direct the computer to perform:

making a plurality of agent sections, that move around the communications network, cooperatively share knowledge about a path including at least one information source among the plurality of information sources, each one of the plurality of information,sources storing information independently and updated autonomically, the knowledge including keyword information which indicates a search condition about information searched for by each of the plurality of agent sections and each agent section determining and moving to an information source to be accessed using the knowledge as path information to the information source to be accessed if the keyword information of each agent section partially matches keyword information which indicates a search condition about information searched for by another agent section, to facilitate a search for and an access to any of the plurality of information sources made by each of the plurality of agent sections.

6. An information access method for collecting information from a plurality of information sources updated autonomically linked by a communications network, comprising:

generating a first agent section that moves around the communications network and obtains at a destination knowledge about a path including at least one information source accessed by a second agent section moving around the communications network and autonomically collecting information on the communications network, among the plurality of information sources, each one of the plurality of information sources storing information independently and updated autonomically the knowledge including keyword information which indicates a search condition about information searched for by the second agent section, determines an information source to be accessed using the knowledge as path information to the information source to be accessed if the keyword information of the second agent section partially matches keyword information which indicates a search condition about information searched for by the first agent section, moves to a determined information source and obtains information from the determined information source based no the knowledge;

delegating the first agent section to the destination through the communications network; and

outputting information that the first agent section collects when the first agent section returns.

7. An information access method for collecting information from an arbitrary information source updated autonomically by delegating an artificial agent section to a plurality of information sources managing arbitrary objects and autonomically operated on a communications network, comprising:

making a plurality of agent sections, that move around the communications network, cooperatively share knowledge about a path including at least one information source among the plurality of information sources, each one of the plurality of information sources storing information independently and updated autonomically, the knowledge including keyword information which indicates a search condition about information searched for by each of the plurality of agent sections and each agent section determining and moving to an information source to be accessed using the knowledge as path information to an information source to be accessed if the keyword information of each agent section partially matches keyword information which indicates a search condition about information searched for by another agent section, to facilitate a search for and an access to any of the plurality of information sources made by each of the plurality of agent sections.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of agents that move around an autonomic distributed information system, the agents collecting information from a plurality of information sources on the autonomic distributed information system, each one of the plurality of information sources storing information separately and updated autonomically, the plurality of agents responsive to an independent search request, and store corresponding path information relating to a location of the collected information from one of the plurality of information sources along with the search request; and

a sharing device, if keywords in the search request partially match, sharing the search request, collected information and corresponding path information between the plurality of agents.

9. An information access method for sharing path information comprising:

generating agents that move around on an autonomic communications network, the autonomic communications network containing a plurality of information sources storing information separately and updated autonomically;

collecting information from one of the plurality of information sources and a corresponding path to the information by the agents responsive to an independent search request; and

sharing, if keywords in the search request partially match, the search request, the information and the corresponding path with other agents.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a means for generating agents that move around on an autonomic communications network, the autonomic communications network containing a plurality of information sources storing information separately and updated autonomically;

a means for collecting information from one of the plurality of information sources and a corresponding path to the information by the agents responsive to an independent search request; and

a means for sharing, if keywords in the search request partially match, the search request, the information and the corresponding path with other agents.

11. An information access method carried out by a plurality of agents linked by an autonomic communications network comprising:

collecting information and corresponding path information, responsive to an independent search request, from the communications network, the communications network containing a plurality of information sources storing information separately and updated autonomically; and

sharing, if keywords in the search request partially match, the search request, the information from one of the plurality of information sources and the path information to the one of the plurality of information sources with other agents,

wherein the plurality of agents move around the communications network.