Agent for communication between a manager and at least one resource, and tool library for creating the agent

• US 7,562,126 B2
• Filed: 04/22/2003
• Issued: 07/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Magnolia Licensing LLC (IP Edge LLC)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing SA (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Brunet, Jean, Sedrati, Gerald
• Primary Examiner(s): DINH, KHANH Q
• Application Number:
  US10/419,852
• Publication Number:
  US 20040064527A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,275 Days
• Field of Search: 709/218, 709/224, 709/228, 714/4, 717/154
• US Class Current: 709/218
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor

Abstract

The agent for communication between a manager (20) and at least one resource (30) comprises a protocol core (111) created automatically from a formalized description of the resource (30), this core (111), once created, comprising in compiled form an interface (14) for communication with the manager (20) and a model (11) of the resource (30) comprising the values of the instances of the resource (30), these values being accessible by the administrator (20) through the communication interface (14).

Claims

1. A tool library embedded in a computer readable storage medium for creating a communication agent (10) for communication between a manager (20) and at least one resource (30) of a data processing system, the tool library comprising a command for creating a protocol core (111) as an executable program of the communication agent, (10) wherein the protocol core manages the at least one resource, said command being created from a formalized description of the at least one resource;

and at least one development support function, which allows a user to develop methods (12) for at least one of communicating with the protocol core (111) updating at least one instance of a model (11) of the at least one resource (30), and using a mode to read the at least one instance of the model (11) of the at least one resource (30), wherein if the mode for obtaining the instance is “

direct”

mode, the protocol core (111) of the agent constructs, then sends a request for a response to the manager wherein the request includes a value of the instance existing in the model of the resource it manages; and

if the mode for obtaining the instance is “

signal”

mode, the protocol core of the agent constructs, then sends a message to the method corresponding to the instance, in order to obtain the value of the at least one instance.

2. A process for communication between a manager and at least one resource using an agent having a protocol core (111) created automatically from a formalized description of at least one resource (30), said core (111) comprising in compiled form a first interface (14) for communicating with the manager (20) and a model (11) of at least one resource (30) comprising values of instances of at least one resource (30), said values being accessible by the manager (20) through the first communication interface (14) comprising:

a first step for sending a request from the manager (20) to the at least one resource (30) in order to read information of the at least one resource (30), and

a second step for decoding the request by the core (111) of the agent (10) in order to determine an instance corresponding to the desired information and a mode for obtaining this instance;

wherein if the mode for obtaining the instance is “

direct”

mode, the protocol core (111) of the agent constructs, then sends a request for a response to the manager wherein the request includes a value of the instance existing in the model of the resource it manages; and

if the mode for obtaining the instance is “

signal”

mode, the protocol core of the agent constructs, then sends a message to the method corresponding to the instance, in order to obtain the value of the instance.

3. A data processing system including a manager, at least one resource and an agent for communication between the manager and the resource, characterized in that the agent embedded in a computer readable storage medium comprises a protocol core (111) created automatically from a formalized description of the resource (30), said core (111) comprising in compiled form a first interface (14) for communicating with the manager (20) and a model (11) of the resource (30) comprising the values of the instances of the resource (30), said values being accessible by the manager (20) through the first communication interface (14);

and at least one development support function, which allows a user to develop methods (12) for at least one of communicating with the protocol core (111 ), updating at least one instance of the model (11) of the resource (30), and using a mode to read the at least one instance of the model (11) of the resource (30), wherein if the mode for obtaining the instance is “

direct”

mode, the protocol core (111) of the agent constructs, then sends a request for a response to the manager wherein the request includes a value of the instance existing in the model of the resource it manages; and

if the mode for obtaining the instance is “

signal”

mode, the protocol core of the agent constructs, then sends a message to the method corresponding to the instance, in order to obtain the value of the at least one instance.