System and method for the discovery and usage of local resources by a mobile agent object

• US 7,614,059 B2
• Filed: 07/11/2003
• Issued: 11/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Topia Technology
• Original Assignee: Topia Technology
• Inventors: Manzano, Michael R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sough; Hyung S
• Assistant Examiner(s): WU, QING YUAN
• Application Number:
  US10/617,604
• Publication Number:
  US 20040010590A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,307 Days
• Field of Search: 719315-317, 712/28, 709201-202
• US Class Current: 719/315
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5055 considering software capabilities, i.e. software resources associated or available to the machine

Abstract

A method is presented for a mobile agent object to discover services available in a host-computing environment. According to an embodiment of this method, the mobile agent object requests a service listing from the host environment. The host environment returns a service listing to the mobile agent object in response to the request for the service listing. The mobile agent object then determines if a particular service is within the returned service listing and requests the particular service if the particular service is determined by the mobile agent object to be within the returned service listing.

Claims

1. A method for a mobile agent object to discover services available in a host-computing environment, the method comprising:

the mobile agent object migrating from a first electronic device to a second electronic device comprising the host environment, the mobile agent object configured to execute in the first electronic device, halt execution in the first electronic device at an execution state, be transplanted to the second electronic device, and resume execution from the execution state in the second electronic device;

after the mobile agent object migrates to the second electronic device, the mobile agent object requesting a service listing from the host environment;

the host environment returning a service listing to the mobile agent object in response to the request for the service listing;

the mobile agent object determining if a particular service is within the returned service listing;

the mobile agent object requesting the particular service if the particular service is determined by the mobile agent object to be within the returned service listing;

an audit system generating an audit event in response to the request for the particular service; and

the audit system logging the audit event in a database.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the mobile agent object moving to a computing environment other than the host-computing environment in response to determining that the particular service is not within the returned service listing.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the host environment providing the particular service to the mobile agent object;

and the mobile agent object incorporating the particular service.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the mobile agent object moving to a computing environment other than the host-computing environment in response to incorporating the particular service.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising

the mobile agent object determining if a second particular service is within the returned service listing;

the mobile agent object requesting the second particular service if the second particular service is determined by the mobile agent object to be within the returned service listing;

the host environment providing the second particular service to the mobile agent object; and

the mobile agent object incorporating the second particular service.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the incorporated service comprises data.

7. The method of claim 3 wherein the incorporated service comprises a process.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the audit system notifying at least one audit plug-in in response logging the audit event.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the audit plug-in retrieving data from the database in response to the notifying.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating an audit event comprises communicating with a processor in the host-computing environment using an application program interface.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the audit system detecting a second request for a service by a mobile agent object;

the audit system generating a second audit event in response to detecting the second request; and

the audit system logging the second audit event in a database.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the host-computing environment providing the particular service to the mobile agent object; and

the mobile agent object incorporating the particular service.

13. A computer system for hosting a mobile agent object having discovery ability, the computer system comprising:

a processor configured to facilitate communications between computer systems coupled by a network; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising;

a mobile-agent runtime environment configured to host a mobile agent object after the mobile agent object migrates to the computer system, the mobile agent object configured to execute in a first electronic device, halt execution in the first electronic device at an execution state, be transplanted to the computer system, and resume execution from the execution state in the computer system;

a discovery service object configured to list service objects available to the mobile agent object in response to a discovery request from the hosted mobile agent object;

at least one service object configured to interact with the mobile agent object in response to a request for the at least one service object by the mobile agent object; and

an audit system within the mobile-agent runtime environment configured to generate an audit event in response to the request for the at least one service object and log the audit event in a database.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising an injector process within the memory, the injector process configured to launch the mobile agent object in the mobile agent runtime environment.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the at least one service object comprises data.

16. The system of claim 13 wherein the at least one service object comprises a process.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein the at least one service object comprises a second mobile agent object.

18. The system of claim 13 wherein the at least one service object comprises a second discovery service object.

19. A system for auditing the activity of a mobile agent object in a host-computing environment, the system comprising:

a processor configured to facilitate communications between the host-computing environment and other computing environments coupled by a network; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising;

a first mobile-agent runtime environment configured to host a mobile agent object after the mobile agent object migrates to the first mobile-agent runtime environment from one of the other computing environments, the mobile agent object configured to execute in one of the other computing environments, halt execution in one of the other computing environments at an execution state, be transplanted to the first mobile-agent runtime environment, and resume execution from the execution state in the first mobile-agent runtime environment;

a discovery service object configured to list service objects available to the mobile agent object in response to a discovery request from the hosted mobile agent object;

at least one service object configured to interact with the mobile agent object in response to a request for the at least one service object by the mobile agent object;

an audit system configured to detect the request for the at least one service object by the hosted mobile agent object in the first mobile-agent runtime environment; and

an audit database configured to log the request for the at least one service object by the mobile agent object in response to the audit system detecting the request.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the audit system is configured to generate a notification in response to detecting of the request.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising at least one audit plug-in configured to retrieve data from the audit database in response to a notification from the audit system.

22. The system of claim 19, further comprising a network interface controller configured to facilitate the movement of the mobile agent object from the first mobile-agent runtime environment to a second mobile-agent runtime environment.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the second mobile-agent runtime environment resides in a memory of one of the other computing environments.

24. The system of claim 22 wherein the second mobile-agent runtime environment resides in a second memory in the host-computing environment.

25. The system of claim 22 wherein the second mobile-agent runtime environment resides in a portion of the memory in the host-computing environment other than the portion of the memory where the first mobile-agent runtime environment resides.

26. A system for hosting a mobile agent object having discovery ability, the system comprising:

a first host-computing environment comprising;

a first processor configured to facilitate communications to and from a computer network; and

a first memory coupled to the first processor, the first memory comprising;

a first mobile-agent runtime environment configured to host a mobile agent object after the mobile agent object migrates to the first host-computing environment, the mobile agent object configured to execute in a first electronic device, halt execution in the first electronic device at an execution state, be transplanted to a second electronic device, and resume execution from the execution state in the second electronic device;

a first discovery service object having an application programming interface for communicating with the first processor in response to a discovery request from the mobile agent object and to return a listing of available service objects to the mobile agent object in response to the discovery request;

a first service object within the first mobile-agent runtime environment configured to interact with the mobile agent object in response to a request for the first service object by the mobile agent object based on the returned listing;

an audit system configured to generate an audit event in response to the request for the first service object and log the audit event in a database, and

a second host-computing environment coupled to the first host-computing environment by the computer network, the second host-computing environment comprising;

a second processor configured to facilitate communications to and from the first host-computing environment; and

a second memory coupled to the second processor, the second memory comprising;

a second mobile-agent runtime environment configured to host the mobile agent object after the mobile agent object migrates to the second host-computing environment;

a second discovery service object having an application programming interface for communicating with the second processor in response to a discovery request from the mobile agent object; and

a second service object within the second mobile-agent runtime environment configured to interact with the mobile agent object in response to a request for the second service object by the mobile agent object.

27. A memory having stored thereon instructions that when executed by a computing device perform the steps of:

receiving from a mobile agent object a request for a service listing after the mobile agent object migrates to the computing device, the mobile agent object configured to execute in a first electronic device, halt execution in the first electronic device at an execution state, be transplanted to a second electronic device, and resume execution from the execution state in the second electronic device;

returning a service listing to the mobile agent object in response to the request for the service listing;

receiving from the mobile agent object a request for a particular service listed in the returned service listing;

generating an audit event in response to the request for the particular service; and

logging the audit event in a database.