Presence detection using mobile agents in peer-to-peer networks
First Claim
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 are member peer nodes in a group of peer nodes in the peer-to-peer network;
wherein the mobile agent is configured to visit one or more of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary and to provide indications of the one or more visited peer nodes to the initiating peer node;
wherein the initiating peer node is further configured to update presence information indicating presence of member peer nodes in the group of peer nodes in accordance with the indications of the one or more visited peer nodes provided by the mobile agent; and
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 an indication that the mobile agent has visited the peer node in a payload of the mobile agent; and
send the mobile agent to a next peer node indicated by the itinerary.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Embodiments of a system and method for using mobile agents in peer-to-peer networks to gather presence information for determining active peers in groups of peers. In one embodiment, a mobile agent may be launched by an initiating peer in a peer group to attempt to visit each member peer in a peer group. The itinerary of the mobile agent may include information for accessing each member peer of the peer group. The mobile agent may return to its initiating peer with a payload indicating which of the member peers it was successful in contacting and visiting. When the mobile agent returns to the originating peer, the originating peer may update presence information indicating presence of member peer nodes in the group in accordance with the indications provided by the mobile agent.
166 Citations
47 Claims
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1. A peer-to-peer network system, comprising:
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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 are member peer nodes in a group of peer nodes in the peer-to-peer network; wherein the mobile agent is configured to visit one or more of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary and to provide indications of the one or more visited peer nodes to the initiating peer node; wherein the initiating peer node is further configured to update presence information indicating presence of member peer nodes in the group of peer nodes in accordance with the indications of the one or more visited peer nodes provided by the mobile agent; and 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 an indication that the mobile agent has visited the peer node in a payload of the mobile agent; and send the mobile agent to a next peer node indicated by the itinerary. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A peer node, comprising:
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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 plurality of peer nodes to be visited by the mobile agent, wherein the peer node and the plurality of peer nodes are member peer nodes in a group of peer nodes in the peer-to-peer network; wherein the mobile agent is configured to visit one or more of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary and to provide indications of the one or more visited peer nodes to the peer node; and update presence information indicating presence of member peer nodes in the group of peer nodes in accordance with the indications of the one or more visited peer nodes provided by the mobile agent; wherein, to update presence information indicating presence of member peer nodes in the group of peer nodes in accordance with the indications of the one or more visited peer nodes provided by the mobile agent, the program instructions are further executable by the processor to indicate in the presence information that one or more of the peer nodes indicated by the itinerary and not visited by the mobile agent are not present in the group of peer nodes. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method, comprising:
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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 plurality of peer nodes in the peer-to-peer network to be visited by the mobile agent, the initiating peer node generating the itinerary from presence information, wherein the initiating peer node and the plurality of peer nodes are member peer nodes in a group of peer nodes in the peer-to-peer network; the mobile agent visiting one or more of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary; the mobile agent providing indications of the one or more visited peer nodes to the initiating peer node; and the initiating peer node updating the presence information indicating presence of member peer nodes in the group of peer nodes in accordance with the indications of the one or more visited peer nodes provided by the mobile agent. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A computer-accessible storage medium comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are configured to implement:
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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 plurality of peer nodes in the peer-to-peer network to be visited by the mobile agent, wherein the initiating peer node and the plurality of peer nodes are member peer nodes in a group of peer nodes in the peer-to-peer network; the mobile agent visiting one or more of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary; the mobile agent providing indications of the one or more visited peer nodes to the initiating peer node; and the initiating peer node updating presence information indicating presence of member peer nodes in the group of peer nodes in accordance with the indications of the one or more visited peer nodes provided by the mobile agent, wherein, in the initiating peer node updating presence information indicating presence of member peer nodes in the group of peer nodes in accordance with the indications of the one or more visited peer nodes provided by the mobile agent, the program instructions are further configured to implement indicating in the presence information that one or more of the plurality of peer nodes not visited by the mobile agent are not present in the group of peer nodes. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47)
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Specification