Management of data flows between networked resource nodes in a social web

• US 9,237,062 B2
• Filed: 09/27/2011
• Issued: 01/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Ermis, Olof, Formo, Joakim, Gardman, Marcus, Zaloshnja, Farjola
• Primary Examiner(s): Mejia, Anthony
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cousins, Joseph M
• Application Number:
  US13/246,281
• Publication Number:
  US 20120079091A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,568 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/024 using relational databases for representation of network management data, e.g. managing via structured query language [SQL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

A resource management node is disclosed that manages a plurality of resource nodes connected to at least one network. The resource management node includes a system entity database, an interaction flow database, and an interaction execution engine. The system entity database contains information identifying communication addresses for the resource nodes and associated metadata identifying capabilities of the resource nodes. The interaction flow database contains information defining data flows that are permitted between identified ones of the resource nodes and associated triggering criteria defining when identified ones of the data flows are to be performed. The interaction execution engine is configured to determine that one of the triggering criteria defined by the interaction flow database is satisfied and to respond by establishing the associated data flow between the identified ones of the resource nodes. Related methods for managing a plurality of resource nodes connected to at least one network are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method by a resource management node for managing a plurality of resource nodes connected to at least one network, the method comprising:

assembling system entity information identifying communication addresses for the resource nodes and associated metadata identifying capabilities of the resource nodes, wherein the resource nodes comprise electrical circuitry;

assembling interaction flow information defining data flows that are permitted between identified ones of the resource nodes and associated triggering criteria defining when identified ones of the data flows are to be performed;

generating based on comparison of capabilities identified by the metadata in the system entity database a recommended data flow between at least two of the resource nodes;

adding to the interaction flow database information identifying the recommended data flow between the at least two resource nodes and an associated triggering criteria defining when to establish the recommended data flow;

determining that the triggering criteria associated with the recommended data flow, identified by the information in the interaction flow database, is satisfied and responding by establishing the recommended data flow to cause communications to occur between the electrical circuitry of the at least two resource nodes;

communicating the recommended data flow to the user as a friendship request;

assembling interaction flow information identifying a friend relationship between the at least two resource nodes and the associated triggering criteria, in response to a message indicating the user'"'"'s acceptance of the friendship request;

identifying one or more further recommended data flows that can now be established between at least one of the resource nodes of the newly accepted friend relationship and at least one more resource node, in response to the message indicating the user'"'"'s acceptance of the friendship request;

communicating one or more further friendship requests to the user with information identifying the functionality that will be created for the user by the one or more further recommended data flows; and

assembling interaction flow information identifying the selected further friend relationships between corresponding ones of the further recommended data flows and the associated triggering criteria, in response to one or more messages indicating the user'"'"'s acceptance of selected one or more of the further friendship requests.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining which resource nodes have compatible data formats; and

excluding from any recommended data flow two or more resource nodes that would be communicatively connected but have incompatible data formats.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tracking what data flows are popular with other end-users based on how often the data flows are used by the other users;

determining that the recommended data flow corresponds to one of the tracked data flows that are popular for use by other end-users; and

communicating information indicating the determined popularity of the recommended data flow as part of the message to the user.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

discovering a resource node that has become newly connected to the at least one network and is not yet connected with any of the resource nodes associated with the data flows defined in the interaction flow database;

determining that the discovered resource node communicates with a data format that is compatible with one or more of the resource nodes; and

initiating setup of one or more data flows between the discovered resource node and the compatible one or more resource nodes.

5. A resource management node that manages a plurality of resource nodes connected to at least one network, the resource management node comprising:

a system entity database containing information identifying communication addresses for the resource nodes and associated metadata identifying capabilities of the resource nodes, wherein the resource nodes comprise electrical circuitry;

an interaction flow database containing information defining data flows that are permitted between identified ones of the resource nodes and associated triggering criteria defining when identified ones of the data flows are to be performed; and

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor and comprising computer readable program code that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform operations comprising;

generating based on comparison of capabilities identified by the metadata in the system entity database a recommended data flow between at least two of the resource nodes;

adding to the interaction flow database information identifying the recommended data flow between the at least two resource nodes and an associated triggering criteria defining when to establish the recommended data flow;

determining that the triggering criteria associated with the recommended data flow, identified by the information in the interaction flow database, is satisfied and responding by establishing the recommended data flow to cause communications to occur between the electrical circuitry of the at least two resource nodes;

communicating the recommended data flow to a user as a friendship request;

responding to a message indicating the user'"'"'s acceptance of the friendship request by adding information to the interaction flow database that identifies a friend relationship between the at least two resource nodes and the associated triggering criteria used to determine when to establish the recommended data flow;

further responding to the message indicating the user'"'"'s acceptance of the friendship by identifying one or more further recommended data flows that can now be established between at least one of the resource nodes of the newly accepted friend relationship and at least one more resource node;

communicating one or more further friendship requests to the user with information identifying the functionality that will be created for the user by the one or more further recommended data flows; and

responding to one or more messages indicating the user'"'"'s acceptance of selected one or more of the further friendship requests by adding further information to the interaction flow database that identifies the selected one or more of the further friend relationships between corresponding ones of the further recommended data flows and the associated triggering criteria used to determine when to establish the corresponding ones of the further recommended data flows.

6. The resource management node of claim 5, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining which resource nodes have compatible data formats, and

excluding from any recommended data flow two or more resource nodes that would be communicatively connected but have incompatible data formats.

7. The resource management node of claim 5, wherein the operations further comprise:

communicating with an interaction flow designer to receive one or more recommended data flows that are defined between at least two of the resource nodes;

communicating the received one or more recommended data flows to the user for acceptance; and

respond to one or more messages indicating the user'"'"'s acceptance of a selected one or more of the recommended data flows by adding information to the interaction flow database that identifies the selected one or more of the recommended data flows and triggering criteria used to determine when to establish the one or more of the recommended data flows.

8. The resource management node of claim 5, further comprising:

a system entity semantic description database containing transcoding information used for transcoding data from one or more data flows to a natural language description for communication to the user,

wherein the operations further comprise using the transcoding information from the system entity semantic description database to transcode data in the established recommended data flow to a natural language description that is communicated to the user.

9. The resource management node of claim 5, wherein the operations further comprise:

tracking what data flows are popular with other users based on how often the data flows are used by the other users;

determining that the recommended data flow corresponds to one of the tracked data flows that are popular for use by other users; and

communicating information indicating the determined popularity of the recommended data flow as part of the message to the user.

10. The resource management node of claim 5, further comprising:

a user profile database containing information identifying what data flows identified by the interaction flow database have been accepted by the user,

wherein the operations further comprise;

generating the recommended data flow using the user profile database, the system entity database, and the interaction flow database to identify which resource nodes the user can access and identify at least one new data flow between user accessible ones of the resource nodes, the at least one new data flow being different than other data flows that are active for the user; and

communicating the at least one new data flow as the recommended data flow to the user for acceptance by the user.

11. The resource management node of claim 5, further comprising:

a user profile database containing information identifying user access credentials that are used to access corresponding ones of the resource nodes,

wherein the operations further comprise restricting the recommended data flow to being with the resource nodes having corresponding user access credentials identified by the user profile database.

12. The resource management node of claim 11, wherein:

the operations further comprise testing the user access credentials to confirm that the interaction execution engine can establish a data flow between corresponding resource nodes before adding the recommended data flow to the interaction flow database.

13. The resource management node of claim 11, wherein:

the operations further comprise using the user access credentials identified by the user profile database when establishing a data flow between corresponding resource nodes.

14. The resource management node of claim 5, wherein the operations further comprise:

discovering a resource node that has become newly connected to the at least one network and is not yet connected with any of the resource nodes associated with the data flows defined in the interaction flow database;

determining that the discovered resource node communicates with a data format that is compatible with one or more of the resource nodes; and

performing an initiate setup of one or more data flows between the discovered resource node and the compatible one or more resource nodes.

15. The resource management node of claim 5, further comprising:

a system entity semantic description database containing information used for transcoding a data format that is output by one of the resource nodes into another data format that is compatible for input into another one of the resource nodes,

wherein the operations further comprise;

determining from the system entity database that the data formats used to communicate between two or more of the resource nodes of a data flow are not compatible; and

responding to the determination by using the transcoding information from the system entity semantic description database to transcode data between the two or more resource nodes of the data flow to provide compatible communications.