Collaborative content coherence using mobile agents in peer-to-peer networks

• US 7,328,243 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2002
• Issued: 02/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Yeager, William J., Chen, Rita Y., Soto, Juan C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Burgess; Glenton B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Higa; Brendan Y.
• Application Number:
  US10/285,066
• Publication Number:
  US 20040088646A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,923 Days
• Field of Search: 709201-211, 709/248, 707/8, 707/203
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1044 Group management mechanisms management of multicast group membership H04L12/185; reconfiguring of node membership in a computing system to eliminate errors G06F11/1425
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99938 Concurrency, e.g. lock management in shared database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A mobile agent may be provided for collaborative content control in peer-to-peer networks. A peer may launch a mobile agent including an itinerary of peers to be visited and indications of one or more documents that the peers are collaboratively editing. The mobile agent may visit peers indicated by the itinerary to collect version information for the document(s). The mobile agent may return the version information to the initiating peer, which may coordinate each of the document(s) on the peer to a most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent. Visited peers may use the payload to determine if their version of the document(s) are up to date and, if not, may add a version update request to the payload. The initiating peer may send the most recent version information to peers that added version update requests to the payload.

Claims

1. A peer-to-peer network system, comprising:

a plurality of peer nodes;

an initiating peer node configured to launch a mobile agent in the peer-to-peer network, wherein the mobile agent includes;

an itinerary indicating a subset of the plurality of peer nodes to be visited by the mobile agent, wherein the initiating peer node and the subset of the plurality of peer nodes form a group of peer nodes configured to collaboratively edit documents in the peer-to-peer network; and

indications of one or more documents that the group of peer nodes are configured to collaboratively edit;

wherein the mobile agent is configured to visit one or more of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary, collect version information for the one or more documents on the one or more visited peer nodes, and provide the version information to the initiating peer node; and

wherein the initiating peer node is further configured to coordinate each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to a most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent.

2. The peer-to-peer network system as recited in claim 1, wherein, to coordinate each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to a most recent version, the initiating peer node is further configured to lock the one or more documents.

3. The peer-to-peer network system as recited in claim 1, wherein the version information includes indications of versions for each of the one or more documents on the peer nodes indicated by the itinerary and indications of the corresponding peer nodes including the indicated versions.

4. The peer-to-peer network system as recited in claim 3, wherein the indications of versions and the corresponding indications of peer nodes are in one or more lists each sorted from a most recent to a least recent version of the corresponding document.

5. The peer-to-peer network system as recited in claim 3, wherein the version information further includes size information for each version of each of the one or more documents.

6. The peer-to-peer network system as recited in claim 1, wherein the version information includes the most recent version of each of the one or more documents.

7. The peer-to-peer network system as recited in claim 1, wherein the version information includes a reference to the most recent version of each of the one or more documents, wherein each reference is configured for accessing the corresponding document on the peer-to-peer network.

8. The peer-to-peer network system as recited in claim 1, wherein, to coordinate each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to a most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent, the initiating peer node is further configured to provide the most recent version of each of the one or more documents to one or more other peer nodes in the group of peer nodes.

9. The peer-to-peer network system as recited in claim 1, wherein, to coordinate each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to a most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent, the initiating peer node is further configured to provide access information for obtaining the most recent version of each of the one or more documents to one or more other peer nodes in the group of peer nodes.

10. The peer-to-peer network system as recited in claim 1, wherein the initiating peer node is further configured to coordinate each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to the most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent prior to an editing session on the document.

11. The peer-to-peer network system as recited in claim 1, wherein the initiating peer node is further configured to coordinate each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to the most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent during an editing session on the document.

12. The peer-to-peer network system as recited in claim 1, wherein the initiating peer node is further configured to coordinate each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to the most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent after an editing session on the document.

13. The peer-to-peer network system as recited in claim 1,

wherein, to collect version infonnation for the one or more documents on the one or more visited peer nodes, the mobile agent is further configured to store collected version infonnation in a payload of the mobile agent;

and

wherein, to provide the version information to the initiating peer node, the mobile agent is further configured to return the payload to the initiating peer node after visiting the one or more of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary.

14. The peer-to-peer network system as recited in claim 1, wherein, to launch a mobile agent in the peer-to-peer network, the initiating peer node is further configured to send the mobile agent to a first peer node indicated by the itinerary.

15. The peer-to-peer network system as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary is configured to:

receive the mobile agent from a previous peer node;

store version information for versions of the one or more documents on the peer node in a payload of the mobile agent; and

send the mobile agent to a next peer node.

16. The peer-to-peer network system as recited in claim 15, wherein, to send the mobile agent to a next peer node, each of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary is further configured to:

determine if the mobile agent has completed the itinerary;

if the mobile agent has not completed the itinerary, send the mobile agent to a next peer node indicated by the itinerary; and

if the mobile agent has completed the itinerary, return the mobile agent to the initiating peer node.

17. The peer-to-peer network system as recited in claim 1, wherein peer nodes on the network are configured to implement a peer-to-peer environment according to a peer-to-peer platform comprising one or more peer-to-peer platform protocols for enabling the peer nodes to discover each other, communicate with each other, form groups of peer nodes, share content, and send and receive mobile agents in the peer-to-peer environment.

18. A peer node, comprising:

a processor;

a memory comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are executable by the processor to launch a mobile agent in the peer-to-peer network, wherein the mobile agent includes;

an itinerary indicating a subset of the plurality of peer nodes to be visited by the mobile agent, wherein the peer node and the subset of the plurality of peer nodes form a group of peer nodes configured to collaboratively edit documents in the peer-to-peer network; and

indications of one or more documents that the group of peer nodes are configured to collaboratively edit;

wherein the mobile agent is configured to visit one or more of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary, collect version information for the one or more documents on the one or more visited peer nodes, and provide the version information to the peer node; and

wherein the program instructions are further executable by the processor to coordinate each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to a most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent.

19. The peer node as recited in claim 18, wherein, to coordinate each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to a most recent version, the peer node is further configured to lock the one or more documents.

20. The peer node as recited in claim 18, wherein the version information includes indications of versions for each of the one or more documents on the peer nodes indicated by the itinerary and indications of the corresponding peer nodes including the indicated versions.

21. The peer node as recited in claim 20, wherein the indications of versions and the corresponding indications of peer nodes are in one or more lists each sorted from a most recent to a least recent version of the corresponding document.

22. The peer node as recited in claim 20, wherein the version information further includes size information for each version of each of the one or more documents.

23. The peer node as recited in claim 18, wherein the version information includes the most recent version of each of the one or more documents.

24. The peer node as recited in claim 18, wherein the version information includes a reference to the most recent version of each of the one or more documents, wherein each reference is configured for accessing the corresponding document on the peer-to-peer network.

25. The peer node as recited in claim 18, wherein, to coordinate each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to a most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent, the peer node is further configured to provide the most recent version of each of the one or more documents to one or more other peer nodes in the group of peer nodes.

26. The peer node as recited in claim 18, wherein, to coordinate each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to a most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent, the peer node is further configured to provide access information for obtaining the most recent version of each of the one or more documents to one or more other peer nodes in the group of peer nodes.

27. The peer node as recited in claim 18, wherein the peer node is further configured to coordinate each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to the most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent prior to an editing session on the document.

28. The peer node as recited in claim 18, wherein the peer node is further configured to coordinate each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to the most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent during an editing session on the document.

29. The peer node as recited in claim 18, wherein the peer node is further configured to coordinate each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to the most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent after an editing session on the document.

30. The peer node as recited in claim 18,

wherein, to collect version information for the one or more documents on the one or more visited peer nodes, the mobile agent is further configured to store collected version information in a payload of the mobile agent;

and

wherein, to provide the version information to the peer node, the mobile agent is further configured to return the payload to the peer node after visiting the one or more of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary.

31. The peer node as recited in claim 18, wherein, to launch a mobile agent in the peer-to-peer network, the peer node is further configured to send the mobile agent to a first peer node indicated by the itinerary.

32. The peer node as recited in claim 18, wherein the peer node is configured to participate in a peer-to-peer environment with other peer nodes according to a peer-to-peer platform comprising one or more peer-to-peer platform protocols for enabling the peer nodes to discover each other, communicate with each other, form groups of peer nodes, share content, and send and receive mobile agents to and from other peer nodes in the peer-to-peer environment.

33. A method, comprising:

an initiating peer node in a peer-to-peer network launching a mobile agent in the peer-to-peer network, wherein the mobile agent includes;

an itinerary indicating a subset of the plurality of peer nodes to be visited by the mobile agent, wherein the initiating peer node and the subset of the plurality of peer nodes form a group of peer nodes configured to collaboratively edit documents in the peer-to-peer network; and

indications of one or more documents that the group of peer nodes are configured to collaboratively edit;

the mobile agent visiting one or more of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary;

the mobile agent collecting version information for the one or more documents on the one or more visited peer nodes;

providing the version information to the initiating peer node; and

the initiating peer node coordinating each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to a most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent.

34. The method as recited in claim 33, wherein said coordinating each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to a most recent version comprises locking the one or more documents to limit access to the one or more documents during said coordinating.

35. The method as recited in claim 33, wherein the version information includes indications of versions for each of the one or more documents on the peer nodes indicated by the itinerary and indications of the corresponding peer nodes including the indicated versions.

36. The method as recited in claim 35, wherein the indications of versions and the corresponding indications of peer nodes are in one or more lists each sorted from a most recent to a least recent version of the corresponding document.

37. The method as recited in claim 35, wherein the version information further includes size information for each version of each of the one or more documents.

38. The method as recited in claim 33, wherein the version information includes the most recent version of each of the one or more documents.

39. The method as recited in claim 33, wherein the version information includes a reference to the most recent version of each of the one or more documents, wherein each reference is configured for accessing the corresponding document on the peer-to-peer network.

40. The method as recited in claim 33, wherein said coordinating each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to a most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent comprises providing the most recent version of each of the one or more documents to one or more other peer nodes in the group of peer nodes.

41. The method as recited in claim 33, wherein said coordinating each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to a most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent comprises providing access information for obtaining the most recent version of each of the one or more documents to one or more other peer nodes in the group of peer nodes.

42. The method as recited in claim 33, further comprising the initiating peer node coordinating each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to the most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent prior to an editing session on the document.

43. The method as recited in claim 33, further comprising the initiating peer node coordinating each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to the most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent during an editing session on the document.

44. The method as recited in claim 33, further comprising the initiating peer node coordinating each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to the most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent after an editing session on the document.

45. The method as recited in claim 33,

wherein said collecting version information for the one or more documents on the one or more visited peer nodes comprises storing collected version information in a payload of the mobile agent;

and

wherein said providing the version information to the initiating peer node comprises the mobile agent returning the payload to the initiating peer node after visiting the one or more of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary.

46. The method as recited in claim 33, wherein said launching a mobile agent in the peer-to-peer network comprises the initiating peer node is further sending the mobile agent to a first peer node indicated by the itinerary.

47. The method as recited in claim 33, further comprising:

one of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary receiving the mobile agent from a previous peer node;

storing version information for versions of the one or more documents on the one of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes in a payload of the mobile agent; and

the one of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes sending the mobile agent to a next peer node.

48. The method as recited in claim 47, wherein the one of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes sending the mobile agent to a next peer node comprises:

the one of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes determining if the mobile agent has completed the itinerary;

if the mobile agent has not completed the itinerary, the one of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes sending the mobile agent to a next peer node indicated by the itinerary; and

if the mobile agent has completed the itinerary, the one of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes returning the mobile agent to the initiating peer node.

49. The method as recited in claim 33, wherein peer nodes in the peer-to-peer network are configured to implement a peer-to-peer environment according to a peer-to-peer platform comprising one or more peer-to-peer platform protocols for enabling the peer nodes to discover each other, communicate with each other, form groups of peer nodes, share content, and send and receive mobile agents in the peer-to-peer environment.

50. A computer-accessible storage medium comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are configured to implement:

an initiating peer node in a peer-to-peer network launching a mobile agent in the peer-to-peer network, wherein the mobile agent includes;

an itinerary indicating a subset of the plurality of peer nodes to be visited by the mobile agent, wherein the initiating peer node and the subset of the plurality of peer nodes form a group of peer nodes configured to collaboratively edit documents in the peer-to-peer network; and

indications of one or more documents that the group of peer nodes are configured to collaboratively edit;

the mobile agent visiting one or more of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary;

the mobile agent collecting version information for the one or more documents on the one or more visited peer nodes;

providing the version information to the initiating peer node; and

the initiating peer node coordinating each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to a most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent.

51. The computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 50, wherein, in said coordinating each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to a most recent version, the program instructions are further configured to implement locking the one or more documents to limit access to the one or more documents during said coordinating.

52. The computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 50, wherein the version information includes indications of versions for each of the one or more documents on the peer nodes indicated by the itinerary and indications of the corresponding peer nodes including the indicated versions.

53. The computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 52, wherein the indications of versions and the corresponding indications of peer nodes are in one or more lists each sorted from a most recent to a least recent version of the corresponding document.

54. The computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 52, wherein the version information further includes size information for each version of each of the one or more documents.

55. The computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 50, wherein the version information includes the most recent version of each of the one or more documents.

56. The computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 50, wherein the version information includes a reference to the most recent version of each of the one or more documents, wherein each reference is configured for accessing the corresponding document on the peer-to-peer network.

57. The computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 50, wherein, in said coordinating each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to a most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent, the program instructions are further configured to implement providing the most recent version of each of the one or more documents to one or more other peer nodes in the group of peer nodes.

58. The computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 50, wherein, in said coordinating each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to a most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent, the program instructions are further configured to implement providing access information for obtaining the most recent version of each of the one or more documents to one or more other peer nodes in the group of peer nodes.

59. The computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 50, wherein the program instructions are further configured to implement the initiating peer node coordinating each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to the most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent prior to an editing session on the document.

60. The computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 50, wherein the program instructions are further configured to implement the initiating peer node coordinating each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to the most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent during an editing session on the document.

61. The computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 50, wherein the program instructions are further configured to implement the initiating peer node coordinating each of the one or more documents on the group of peer nodes to the most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent after an editing session on the document.

62. The computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 50,

wherein, in said collecting version information for the one or more documents on the one or more visited peer nodes, the program instructions are further configured to implement storing collected version information in a payload of the mobile agent;

and

wherein, in said providing the version information to the initiating peer node, the program instructions are further configured to implement the mobile agent returning the payload to the initiating peer node after visiting the one or more of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary.

63. The computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 50, wherein, in said launching a mobile agent in the peer-to-peer network, the program instructions are further configured to implement the initiating peer node is further sending the mobile agent to a first peer node indicated by the itinerary.

64. The computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 50, wherein the program instructions are further configured to implement:

one of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary receiving the mobile agent from a previous peer node;

storing version information for versions of the one or more documents on the one of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes in a payload of the mobile agent; and

the one of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes sending the mobile agent to a next peer node.

65. The computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 64, wherein, in the one of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes sending the mobile agent to a next peer node, the program instructions are further configured to implement:

the one of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes detennining if the mobile agent has completed the itinerary;

if the mobile agent has not completed the itinerary, the one of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes sending the mobile agent to a next peer node indicated by the itinerary; and

if the mobile agent has completed the itinerary, the one of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes returning the mobile agent to the initiating peer node.

66. The computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 50, wherein peer nodes in the peer-to-peer network are configured to implement a peer-to-peer environment according to a peer-to-peer platform comprising one or more peer-to-peer platform protocols for enabling the peer nodes to discover each other, communicate with each other, form groups of peer nodes, share content, and send and receive mobile agents in the peer-to-peer environment.