Management and arbitration of mobile service discovery

• US 20040236633A1
• Filed: 05/05/2003
• Published: 11/25/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Knauerhase, Robert C., Robinson, Scott H.
• Granted Patent: US 7,930,214 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2856 Access arrangements, e.g. Internet access asynchronous transfer mode networks H04L12/5601; broadband local area networks H04L12/2801; optical access or distribution networks H04Q11/0067; access to open networks H04L12/5691; digital subscriber line end-user equipment and bit-level processing of data on a PSTN-based network H04M11/00; home network gateways H04L12/2834; wireless access networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2876 Handling of subscriber policies group policies management H04L41/0893

Abstract

A Registry, such as a UDDI registry, dynamically manages (e.g. filters and/or re-orders) answers to service queries by Service Consumers based at least on one or more of the individual states/status of Service Providers, the collective service environment state, and policies employed by the environment. The Registry may be configured to infer operational state/status about a Service Provider, such as impending unavailability due to very low battery reserves, and to remove providers from the registry if determined to be unavailable. The Registry may be configured to associate a shelf-life with a provider registration based on characteristics of the Service Provider, or based on past experience with the Service Provider. Such dynamic management allows the Registry to implement intelligent task distribution and load balancing between Service Providers, and to insulate Service Providers on fragile platforms (e.g. notebooks, handhelds, etc.) that may otherwise be overwhelmed by offering themselves as a traditional provider.

Claims

1. A service registry method, comprising:

receiving a publication from a service provider for at least services offered by the service provider;

registering the service provider;

determining, for each service provider registration, meta-data describing characteristics of the service provider;

associating the meta-data with said registration of the service provider;

receiving a service request from a service consumer;

identifying registered service providers providing the service; and

selecting a service provider best able to provide the service from said identified registered service providers, the selecting based at least in part on said meta-data associated with registered service providers.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein selecting the service provider is based at least in part on selected ones of the following:

whether the service provider is transitory, whether the service provider has capacity to perform the requested service, completion requirements set by the service consumer, resource requirements of the requested service, and inferred capabilities of the service provider.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the service provider best able to provide the service is the service provider of said identified registered service providers that has the most energy available thereto.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting at least one policy, from a set of policies utilizing said meta-data associated with registered service providers, to rank service provider suitability to providing the requested service; and

performing said selecting the service provider based at least in part on applying the policy to said identified registered service providers.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the policy comprises selected ones of the following policies:

choose service provider with fastest processor(s);

choose service provider with most available processor(s);

choose service provider with least load;

choose service provider with most available network bandwidth;

choose service least recently used provider;

choose service cheapest service provider;

choose service provider based on historical interaction therewith;

choose service provider with most available storage;

choose provider with most available main memory;

choose service provider having compatible software platform with service consumer;

choose service provider having compatible hardware platform with service consumer

choose provider based on service-level agreements;

choose provider offering best security; and

choose provider with similar group/entity credentials.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

updating the set of policies when a new service provider registers with the service registry.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining a relative ranking of said identified registered service providers based at least in part the policy.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if said selected service provider is available or unavailable to perform the requested service; and

if available, identifying the selected service provider to the service consumer.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

if unavailable, de-registering said selected service provider and adding the deregistered service provider to a check status list for later testing for availability.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the service registry querying the service provider for updated meta-data for the service provider.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the service provider pushing updated meta-data for the service provider to the service registry.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying said selected service provider to the service consumer; and

receiving notification from the service consumer of unavailability of said identified service provider.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

if the service consumer is trusted, de-registering the identified service provider responsive to receiving said notification from the service consumer, else testing the identified service provider for availability.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

inferring likely inability of the identified registered service providers to perform the requested service based at least in part on the meta-data associated with the identified service providers; and

if inability is inferred for a particular service provider, then requiring said the service provider to be different from the particular service provider.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the service registry is a UDDI registry.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating a shelf-life with service provider registrations.

17. An article comprising a machine-accessible media having associated data, wherein the data, when accessed, results in a machine performing:

receiving a publication from a service provider for at least services offered by the service provider;

registering the service provider;

determining, for each service provider registration, meta-data describing characteristics of the service provider;

associating the meta-data with said registration of the service provider;

receiving a service request from a service consumer;

identifying registered service providers providing the service; and

selecting a service provider best able to provide the service from said identified registered service providers, the selecting based at least in part on said meta-data associated with registered service providers.

18. The article of claim 17 wherein the machine-accessible media further includes data, when accessed, results in the machine performing:

determining if said selected service provider is available or unavailable to perform the requested service; and

if available, identifying the selected service provider to the service consumer.

19. The article of claim 17 wherein the machine-accessible media further includes data, when accessed, results in the machine performing:

inferring likely inability of the identified registered service providers to perform the requested service based at least in part on the meta-data associated with the identified service providers; and

if inability is inferred for a particular service provider, then requiring said the service provider to be different from the particular service provider.

20. A system, comprising:

a service registry operable to receive publications of available services from service providers, and to receive service requests;

a meta-data engine operable to associate meta-data with said registrations describing characteristics and/or capabilities of the registered service providers;

wherein the service registry is further operable to identify a service provider best able to provide for a particular service request based at least in part on the meta-data associated with service providers.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

a policy engine operable to apply policies to meta-data for registered service providers to facilitate said identifying the service provider best able to provide for the particular service request.