Evaluation systems and methods for coordinating software agents

• US 8,627,402 B2
• Filed: 12/15/2006
• Issued: 01/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: MEC Management, LLC (Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota)
• Original Assignee: The Invention Science Fund I, L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Mangione-Smith, William Henry, Cohen, Alexander J., Jung, Edward K. Y., Levien, Royce A., Lord, Robert W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehedi, Morshed
• Application Number:
  US11/640,448
• Publication Number:
  US 20080072241A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,580 Days
• Field of Search: 719/317, 726/1
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/048 mobile agents
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security

Abstract

A device, method, computer program product, and network subsystem are described for associating a first mobile agent with a first security policy and a second mobile agent with a second security policy or for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent and for evaluating a received message at least in response to an indication of the first security policy and to an indication of the second security policy or for deploying the first agent.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent, the first and second agents operable to decide upon an action to perform based upon a history of the respective first and second agent'"'"'s observations in the respective first and second agent'"'"'s environment;

deploying the first agent, wherein at least one of providing the first agent with code or deploying the first agent is implemented at least partially using a processing device;

sending an inquiry to a network location;

implementing a situation-dependent logic table in the first agent;

configuring the first agent with policy update code;

obtaining one or more risk indicators in the situational information about the first agent and about the second agent;

including at least code for receiving a capacity indicator of the situational information;

associating the second agent with a remote location; and

transmitting the second agent to a processing core.

2. The method of claim 1 in which providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

receiving a mobile software agent as the first agent.

3. The method of claim 1 in which deploying the first agent comprises:

deploying the first agent to a first core operable to transmit a signal to a location of the second agent via a passive medium.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent, wherein at least one of the first agent or the second agent includes a module operation to decide upon an action to perform based upon a history of its observations in an environment.

22. The method of claim 1 in which deploying the first agent comprises:

aggregating situational information about the first agent and about the second agent in response to data received after signaling the first agent and the second agent.

4. A first method comprising:

performing a reception of or a transmission of one or more instructions relating to a second method including;

providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent, the first and second agents operable to decide upon an action to perform based upon a history of the respective first and second agent'"'"'s observations in the respective first and second agent'"'"'s environment;

deploying the first agent, wherein at least one of providing the first agent with code or deploying the first agent is implemented at least partially using a processing device;

sending an inquiry to a network location;

implementing a situation-dependent logic table in the first agent;

configuring the first agent with policy update code;

obtaining one or more risk indicators in the situational information about the first agent and about the second agent;

including at least code for receiving a capacity indicator of the situational information;

associating the second agent with a remote location; and

transmitting the second agent to a processing core.

5. The first method of claim 4 in which performing a reception of or a transmission of one or more instructions relating to a second method comprises:

performing a reception of or a transmission of one or more instructions relating to deploying the first agent.

6. A method comprising:

providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent by obtaining one or more risk indicators in the situational information about the first agent and about the second agent and by including at least code for receiving a capacity indicator of the situational information, the first and second agents operable to decide upon an action to perform based upon a history of the respective first and second agent'"'"'s observations in the respective first and second agent'"'"'s environment;

deploying the first agent to a first core operable to transmit a signal to a location of the second agent via a passive medium;

receiving situational data about the second agent via the first agent, wherein at least one of providing the first agent with code, or deploying the first agent, or receiving situational data about the second agent via the first agent, is implemented at least partially using a processing device;

sending an inquiry to a network location;

implementing a situation-dependent logic table in the first agent;

configuring the first agent with policy update code;

obtaining one or more risk indicators in the situational information about the first agent and about the second agent;

including at least code for receiving a capacity indicator of the situational information;

associating the second agent with a remote location; and

transmitting the second agent to a processing core.

7. A network subsystem comprising:

means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent, the first and second agents operable to decide upon an action to perform based upon a history of the respective first and second agent'"'"'s observations in the respective first and second agent'"'"'s environment, the means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent including;

means for sending an inquiry to a network location;

means for implementing a situation-dependent logic table in the first agent;

means for configuring the first agent with policy update code;

means for obtaining one or more risk indicators in the situational information about the first agent and about the second agent;

means for associating the second agent with a remote location; and

means for transmitting the second agent to a processing core; and

means for deploying the first agent.

8. The network subsystem of claim 7 in which the means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

means for receiving data from the network location.

9. The network subsystem of claim 7 in which the means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

means for receiving a mobile software agent as the first agent; and

means for deploying a mobile software agent as the second agent.

10. The network subsystem of claim 7 further comprising:

means for generating the situational information at least partly based on an agent output.

11. The network subsystem of claim 7 further comprising:

means for sending a signal to the first agent.

12. The network subsystem of claim 7 further comprising:

means for receiving situational data about the second agent via the first agent.

13. The network subsystem of claim 7 in which the means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

means for including at least code for receiving a capacity indicator of the situational information.

14. The network subsystem of claim 7 in which the means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

means for obtaining the code for responding to the situational information about the first agent and about the second agent before obtaining the first agent.

15. The network subsystem of claim 7 in which the means for deploying the first agent comprises:

means for deploying the first agent to a first core able to communicate with the second agent.

16. The network subsystem of claim 7 in which the means for deploying the first agent comprises:

means for deploying the first agent locally.

17. The network subsystem of claim 7 in which the means for deploying the first agent comprises:

means for deploying the first agent to a first location in response to an association between a second location and the second agent.

18. The network subsystem of claim 7 further comprising:

one or more antennas operably coupled with the means for deploying the first agent;

one or more data storage devices operably coupled with the means for deploying the first agent;

one or more user interfaces operably coupled with the means for deploying the first agent;

means for sending a signal to the first agent; and

means for receiving situational data about the second agent via the first agent.

19. The network subsystem of claim 7 in which the means for deploying the first agent comprises:

means for deploying the first agent to a first core operable to transmit a signal to a location of the second agent via a passive medium;

means for deploying the first agent to a first core able to communicate with the second agent; and

means for deploying the first agent to a first location in response to an association between a second location and the second agent.

20. The network subsystem of claim 7 further comprising:

one or more data storage devices operably coupled with the means for deploying the first agent;

means for sending a signal to the first agent; and

means for receiving a security policy update.

23. A method comprising:

sending an inquiry to a network location;

providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent, the first and second agents operable to decide upon an action to perform based upon a history of the respective first and second agent'"'"'s observations in the respective first and second agent'"'"'s environment;

implementing a situation-dependent logic table in the first agent;

configuring the first agent with policy update code;

including at least code for receiving a capacity indicator of the situational information;

deploying the first agent, wherein at least one of providing the first agent with code or deploying the first agent is implemented at least partially using a processing device;

associating the second agent with a remote location; and

transmitting the second agent to a processing core.

27. The method of claim 23 in which providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

receiving data from the network location.

28. The method of claim 23 in which providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

receiving a mobile software agent as the first agent; and

deploying a mobile software agent as the second agent.

29. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

generating the situational information at least partly based on an agent output.

30. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

sending a signal to the first agent.

31. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

receiving situational data about the second agent via the first agent.

32. The method of claim 23 in which providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

including at least code for receiving a capacity indicator of the situational information.

33. The method of claim 23 in which deploying the first agent comprises:

deploying the first agent to a first core able to communicate with the second agent.

34. The method of claim 23 in which deploying the first agent comprises:

deploying the first agent locally.

35. The method of claim 23 in which deploying the first agent comprises:

deploying the first agent to a first location in response to an association between a second location and the second agent.

36. The method of claim 23 in which deploying the first agent comprises:

deploying the first agent to a first core operable to transmit a signal to a location of the second agent via a passive medium;

deploying the first agent to a first core able to communicate with the second agent; and

deploying the first agent to a first location in response to an association between a second location and the second agent.

24. A first method comprising:

performing a reception of or a transmission of one or more instructions relating to a second method including;

providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent, the first and second agents operable to decide upon an action to perform based upon a history of the respective first and second agent'"'"'s observations in the respective first and second agent'"'"'s environment;

deploying the first agent, wherein at least one of providing the first agent with code or deploying the first agent is implemented at least partially using a processing device;

sending an inquiry to a network location;

implementing a situation-dependent logic table in the first agent;

configuring the first agent with policy update code;

including at least code for receiving a capacity indicator of the situational information;

associating the second agent with a remote location; and

transmitting the second agent to a processing core.

25. A network subsystem comprising:

means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent,

the first and second agents operable to decide upon an action to perform based upon a history of the respective first and second agent'"'"'s observations in the respective first and second agent'"'"'s environment,

the means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent including;

means for sending an inquiry to a network location;

means for implementing a situation-dependent logic table in the first agent;

means for configuring the first agent with policy update code;

means for including at least code for receiving a capacity indicator of the situational information;

means for associating the second agent with a remote location; and

means for transmitting the second agent to a processing core; and

means for deploying the first agent.

26. The network subsystem of claim 25 in which the means for providing a first agent with code for responding to situational information about the first agent and about a second agent comprises:

means for obtaining one or more risk indicators in the situational information about the first agent and about the second agent.