JP5111698B2 - Mobile agent, service providing server, and data communication system - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides information on a mobile agent that moves between servers on a network based on a task given by a user, a server that provides a service to the mobile agent, and a server that can be accessed by the user to which the mobile agent belongs. The present invention relates to a management server that is centrally managed as access control information, and a data communication system having these configurations.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In recent years, mobile agent technology that collects information according to user requests and performs various tasks while moving a plurality of service providing servers existing on the network as a user's agent, so-called mobile agent Technology has been studied for practical application.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
When the mobile agent accesses the server along the task given by the user on behalf of the user and uses the service provided by the server, the mobile agent must be authenticated on the server side. The service must be provided according to the access authority given to the user.
Specifically, the services provided by a server include a service that can be provided to all mobile agents that have accessed the server and a service that restricts available mobile agents, and the latter is restricted. In the service, only the mobile agent of the user who has the access right to the service in advance can access.
As described above, in order for the server side to determine whether or not the mobile agent can be accessed in the execution environment, and to perform access control of the mobile agent, a list defining the user authority is required.
[0004]
However, this list must be defined in detail for each user and service, and because the format differs depending on the execution environment of each server (OS type, etc.), it must be created independently for each server. It was necessary to hold.
For this reason, the access of the mobile agent to the server resource and the management of the access to the service provided by the server are very complicated.
[0005]
Furthermore, conventionally, when a mobile agent moves on the network while holding all the authentication information necessary for receiving each service and accesses the server (uses the service provided by the server), All stored authentication information was presented to the server. For this reason, the server had to perform authentication processing based on the extracted information after extracting information necessary for authentication from the information presented by the mobile agent. There was a problem such as taking.
[0006]
The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances. When a mobile agent uses a service on a server on a network, the access control of the mobile agent is performed by omitting an agent authentication process performed on the server. It is an object of the present invention to provide a management server, a mobile agent, a server, and a data communication system that perform the above efficiently.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is based on a task given by a user on a network.Agent middleware was builtMove between servers,The server includes a service providing server and a management server that manages service usage information necessary for using the service provided by the service providing server in association with the user information and the service information, Each serverA mobile agent that performs processing onAboveTo the management serverWhen moving, to the management server,Information on the user to whom the user belongs and information on the service to be usedReceiveProcessing toReceiveGenerate a ticket that records service usage information corresponding to the information of the service you want to useLet and send to selfProcessingExecuteWhen moving to the service providing server,Providing the service to the service providing serverThe attributes of the services provided by the serverPresentationLetPresentationDetermine whether or not the server provides the desired service based on the attribute of the serviceLetProviding a mobile agent that, when using the service that the user wants to use, presents the ticket corresponding to the service to a service providing server that provides the service and executes a process for requesting the use of the service To do.
[0008]
  The present invention is also a service providing server that provides a service to a mobile agent that moves on a network based on a task given by a user, and is recorded in a ticket presented by the mobile agent. A determination unit that determines whether or not a service can be used based on the service usage information; and a service providing unit that provides a service to the mobile agent based on the determination result;
After the mobile agent moves to itself, after presenting the attribute of the service provided by the mobile agent to the mobile agent, the mobile agent identifies itself as a service providing server corresponding to the task given by the user. The service providing server is provided, wherein the ticket is presented from the mobile agent.
[0009]
  The present invention also provides service usage information required when a mobile agent that moves between servers on a network based on a task given by a user uses a service provided by each of the servers. A management server that manages the information associated with the service information and the service information, and receives the information of the user to which the mobile agent belongs and the information of the service to be used from the mobile agent. Service usage information extraction means for extracting the service usage information based on the above, ticket creation means for creating a ticket recording the service usage information extracted by the service usage information extraction means, and the ticket created by the ticket creation means Management means comprising issuing means for issuing to a mobile agent Providing a chromatography server, and the mobile agent, the data communication system characterized in that they are composed of the above service providing server.
[0010]
  The present invention also provides a network on the basis of a task given by a user.Agent middleware was builtMove between servers,The server includes a service providing server and a management server that manages service usage information necessary for using the service provided by the service providing server in association with the user information and the service information, Each serverA mobile agent that performs processing onAboveTo the management serverWhen moving, to the management server,Information on the user to whom the user belongs and information on the service to be usedReceiveProcessing toReceiveThe ticket with the service usage information corresponding to the information of the service you want to useSendProcessingExecuteAccess the server that manages the list of services provided by each service providing serverTo the serverBased on the ticket received by the ticket receiving means and the list, the service providing server providing the service to be used is selected, and the selected service providing server is accessed.And the service providing serverA mobile agent is provided that, when using a service to be used, presents the ticket corresponding to the service and executes a process for requesting the use of the service.
[0011]
  The present invention also provides a tubeLogical serverAnd moveAgentService deliveryA data communication system comprising a server,The management server stores service usage information required when a mobile agent that moves between servers on a network based on a task given by a user uses a service provided by each of the servers. Management information that is managed in association with the information of the service and the information of the service, based on the received information when the information of the user to which the mobile agent belongs and the information of the service to be used are received from the mobile agent. Service usage information extracting means for extracting the service usage information, ticket creating means for creating a ticket recording the service usage information extracted by the service usage information extracting means, and moving the ticket created by the ticket creating means Issuing means for issuing to the agent, and the service providing service The server is a server that provides a service to a mobile agent that moves on the network based on a task given by a user, and includes the service usage information recorded in the ticket presented by the mobile agent. Based on the determination result of the determination means, and a service providing means for providing a service to the mobile agent based on the determination result of the determination means, and any one of the servers includes the service The mobile agent manages a list describing services provided by a providing server, and the mobile agent moves between servers on a network based on a task given by a user, and each of the servers Service usage information required for using the services provided by the To the management server managed in association with the service information and the service information that the user belongs to and the service information that the user wants to use, and the service information that the user wants to use transmitted by the transmission means Based on the ticket received by the ticket receiving means, the ticket receiving means for receiving from the management server a ticket in which the service usage information corresponding to is recorded, and the server managing the list. A service providing server that provides the service that the user wants to use is selected, the service providing server that is selected is accessed, and when the service that the user wants to use is used, the ticket corresponding to the service is presented and the service is used. Providing a data communication system, comprising: The
[0022]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
First, the outline of the data communication system of the present invention will be briefly described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a network configuration of the data communication system according to the embodiment of the present invention.
In the figure, a management server 10, a service providing server 20 for providing various services, and an agent registration / occurrence server 30 are coupled to each other via a computer network, and a user agent called an agent can move on the network. Such an environment (agent middleware) is built on each server.
The user terminal 40 is a mobile communication terminal such as a personal computer, a mobile phone, or a PHS, and includes a display unit (not shown) that displays a message and a screen, and an input unit (not shown) that inputs information. And a WWW browser application program capable of receiving services on the Internet is installed.
[0023]
The user terminal 40 is connected to the agent registration / occurrence server 30, and the user operates the user terminal 40 to access the agent registration / occurrence server 30 and transmit a task or the like to generate the agent. Let
The mobile agent A operates on the agent middleware, and is an autonomous computer program written in, for example, JAVA (registered trademark) language or XML language. It is possible to move between different servers and to resume execution while retaining the data.
[0024]
The mobile agent A autonomously moves on the network as necessary, uses resources on the network, and executes various processes while communicating with other mobile agents. For example, a process in which a mobile agent performs a process between servers in a fixed order based on a predetermined process and determines a server to be moved next in accordance with a process in a destination server. It can be done. Also, in a dial-up environment, the user disconnects the line after registering and creating the mobile agent, and when the processing at the destination is completed, the mobile agent is called again to reduce unnecessary communication costs. be able to.
[0025]
Next, FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a data communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the data communication system includes a management server 10, a mobile agent A, and a service providing server 20.
In FIG. 1, the management server 10 centrally manages information on services available to each user, and further provides information on service providing servers available to each user and information provided by each service providing server as detailed information. For each service, access control information in which information indicating whether or not the user can use the service is centrally managed.
[0026]
The service providing server 20 is a so-called computer including a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a RAM (Random Access Memory), a storage device, and the like (not shown). FIG. 1 shows a hierarchical model of software of the service providing server 20. That is, the service providing server includes an OS (Operation System) 201 such as UNIX (registered trademark), a VM (Virtual Machine) 202 that operates on the OS 201, and an agent middleware 203 that operates on the VM 202. An operating environment (platform) has been established.
The above-described VM 202 is an environment for interpreting and executing a program using intermediate code generated by, for example, a JAVA (registered trademark) compiler.
The agent middleware 203 is made of, for example, a programming language called JAVA (an object-oriented interpreter language developed by Sun Microsystems). The agent middleware 203 includes an access control unit 204 that exchanges information with the mobile agent A and performs access control of the mobile agent A.
[0027]
By providing the service operating server 20 with such a hierarchical software operating environment, it is possible to prepare an environment in which the mobile agent A can operate, and since the agent middleware 203 is constructed, for example, the OS Even different service providing servers 20 can provide the mobile agent A with a common function.
It is assumed that the above-described VM 202 and agent middleware 203 are stored in a recording medium in the service providing server 20.
Further, the service providing server 20 includes various services (information) 60, and provides these services (information) 60 to the mobile agent A. The contents of this service include information that can be acquired by ordinary users on the Internet, such as information relating to travel, information relating to ticket sales, multimedia information such as movies, and the like.
[0028]
Next, the operation of the data communication system according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG.
The mobile agent A is actually a kind of computer program, and operates when a CPU (Central Processing Unit) in the service providing server 20 executes it. Thus, although the operation is actually performed when the CPU (not shown) of the service providing server 20 executes the mobile agent A, for convenience of explanation, the service providing server 20 executes the mobile agent A. The processing to be performed will be described assuming that the mobile agent A independently performs the processing of the operation.
[0029]
Further, before the processing shown below is performed, the user needs to access the management server 10 from the user terminal 40 (see FIG. 2) in advance and perform an operation of registering a service or the like that the user wants to use. Thereby, the management server 10 manages information on services that can be used by the user as service usage information.
[0030]
The registration operation described above includes a method of directly accessing the management server 10 from the user terminal 40 for registration, and when the user accesses the service usage server 20 directly from the user terminal 40 via the Internet or the like, It is also possible to register available services to the service providing server. In this case, the service providing server 20 transmits information on services available to the user to the management server 10. As a result, the service received from the service providing server 20 is added to the service usage information managed by the management server 10 as a usable service.
[0031]
Hereinafter, the operation of the data communication system in the present embodiment will be described.
First, the mobile agent A is generated when the user accesses the agent registration / occurrence server 30 using the user terminal 40 and requests a desired task (work).
At this time, the identification information of the user and the identification information of the mobile agent A generated by the user are associated with each other and transmitted from the agent registration / occurrence server 30 to the management server 10. The management server 10 holds the information of both of these correspondences received from the agent registration / occurrence server 30 so that the mobile agent A is generated when the identification information of the mobile agent A is received in the processing described later. The user (the user to whom the mobile agent belongs) can be identified.
[0032]
The mobile agent A generated by the above-described operation first moves to the management server 10 and transmits its identification information and service information corresponding to the task given by the user to the management server 10. .
For example, when a “travel” task is given by the user, the mobile agent A transmits “travel” to the management server 10 as information on a service to be used.
When the management server 10 receives “travel” from the mobile agent A as the identification information of the mobile agent A and the service information to be used, the management server 10 registers the agent to which the mobile agent A belongs from the identification information of the mobile agent A. Based on the information acquired from the server, it is determined whether or not the user has the right to use the “travel” service.
[0033]
As a result, when the user has the right to use the “travel” service, the service use information necessary for receiving the “travel” service from the service providing server 20 on the network is recorded. Issue a ticket.
This ticket is issued for each service. For example, when information of a plurality of services is transmitted to the management server as a service that the mobile agent wants to use, the management server 10 creates a ticket for each service and transmits the ticket to the mobile agent.
[0034]
In this way, when the mobile agent A receives a ticket, it moves to the service providing server 20 existing on the network while holding the received ticket.
At this time, the mobile agent needs to determine whether or not the destination service providing server is a server providing the service that the mobile agent wants to use. As a method for this determination, for example, when the mobile agent visits the service providing server 20, the service providing server 20 provides the mobile agent A with the attribute of the data that the service providing server 20 has (provided service attribute). And a method of determining whether or not the task is given by the user based on the presented information.
Further, a list describing services provided by each service providing server 20 is managed by some server on the network, and corresponds to a task given to the user based on the list. The service providing server 20 may be extracted and accessed to the selected service providing server 20 in order.
[0035]
When the mobile agent A moves to the service providing server 20 corresponding to the task given by the user, the mobile agent A presents the ticket issued from the management server to the service providing server 20.
The access control unit 204 of the service providing server 20 presented with the ticket from the mobile agent A confirms the validity of this ticket. If the ticket is valid, the mobile agent A uses the service 60 provided by itself. The use of the service 60 provided by the self is permitted.
Thereby, the mobile agent A can acquire information according to the user's task from the service providing server 20.
[0036]
As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the management server receives information on a desired service from the mobile agent, the management server determines whether or not the mobile agent can use the service. Then, a ticket that records service usage information necessary for using the service is issued.
In other words, in the present embodiment, when a mobile agent visits a server, the management server performs the mobile agent authentication process that has been performed on each server, and this service is used by this authentication process. Only when it is determined that it is possible, a ticket in which service usage information, which is authentication information necessary for using this service, is recorded is issued.
Thereby, the authentication process performed between a server and a mobile agent can be simplified. Therefore, the mobile agent can use the service corresponding to the service usage information recorded in the ticket only by presenting the ticket to the service providing server 20.
[0037]
In the above-described embodiment, when the mobile agent A presents a ticket, the validity of this ticket is lost. Therefore, even if the mobile agent moves to another service providing server 20 and presents this ticket again, the ticket is no longer valid and the mobile agent is not permitted to use the service of the service providing server 20. It becomes.
Note that the validity of a ticket can be arbitrarily set when the management server issues a ticket. For example, as described above, if it is used once, it can be invalidated, the number of times that the ticket can be used effectively can be set, and the expiration date of the ticket can be set. The management server adds the set information to the ticket to be issued when the valid number of tickets and the valid period are set.
In this way, by setting the effective use count and expiration date for the ticket, it is possible to clarify the effectiveness of the ticket, prevent the ticket from being abused unnecessarily, and manage access control on the network accurately.
[0038]
Further, in the above-described embodiment, when the management server issues a ticket, it is possible to prevent leakage of personal information by not recording information relating to the user to which the mobile agent belongs to this ticket. In the present embodiment, authentication processing is performed when the mobile agent presents a ticket in which service usage information is recorded, so that no information on the user to which the mobile agent belongs is necessary. And by not recording such personal information in the ticket, it is possible to prevent leakage of information related to privacy.
Further, the ticket may be created in a language that can be recognized only by a server that provides a service corresponding to the service usage information recorded in the ticket. By doing this, if the mobile agent holds multiple tickets, even if these tickets are presented to the server, the server can only grasp the contents of the ticket that is relevant to itself. Leakage can be prevented.
[0039]
In the above-described embodiment, when the management server issues the ticket to the mobile agent, the service usage fee for using the service is charged in association with the user to which the mobile agent belongs. You may do it. Since the management server performs the charge management in this way, it is not necessary for each server to manage the charge information, so that the burden on each server can be reduced.
[0040]
In the above-described embodiment, the agent registration / occurrence server and the management server are provided separately. However, these servers may be configured as one server. With this configuration, it is possible to save time and effort for the mobile agent to bother moving from the agent registration / occurrence server to the management server 10. In addition, since information transmitted and received between two servers can be shared at one place, the amount of data that each server has can be reduced.
[0041]
The embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and includes design and the like within a scope not departing from the gist of the present invention.
[0042]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the management server of the present invention, service usage information in which information on whether or not a mobile agent can use a service for the server is centrally managed, and for mobile agents who want to use the service. Thus, since service usage information necessary for service usage is issued as a ticket, the mobile agent authentication processing in the service providing server can be simplified, and the process can be quickly shifted to processing related to service provision.
[0043]
According to the second aspect of the invention, by issuing a ticket for each service, it is possible to present only necessary minimum information to a server that desires to use the service. As a result, the number of data handled by the server is reduced, and authentication processing and the like can be performed very easily.
[0044]
According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to prevent leakage of personal information by not recording user information in a ticket.
[0045]
Further, according to the invention described in claim 4, since the valid number of tickets or the expiration date is added, the validity of the ticket is clarified, the abuse of the ticket is prevented, and the access control on the network is accurately performed. Can be managed.
[0046]
According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the ticket is created in a language that can be recognized only by a server that provides a service corresponding to the service usage information recorded in the ticket. As a result, when a mobile agent holds multiple tickets, even if the multiple tickets are presented to the server, the server can only grasp the contents of the ticket that is relevant to itself, thus preventing information leakage. can do.
[0047]
According to the sixth aspect of the invention, when a ticket is issued to a mobile agent, a service usage fee for using the service is charged in association with the user to which the mobile agent belongs.
In this way, since the service usage fee is charged when the ticket is issued, it is not necessary for each server to manage the charging information. In this way, the management server can perform the charge management, and the burden on each server can be reduced. As a result, the configuration of each server can be simplified.
[0048]
Further, according to the invention described in claim 7, when the mobile agent uses the service provided by each server, the mobile agent simply transmits the information about the service to be used and the information about the user to which the mobile agent belongs to the management server. Necessary minimum information can be acquired as a ticket. And if you move on the network while holding a ticket with a small amount of data recorded with this necessary minimum information, and if you want to use the service provided by the server, just present the corresponding ticket, The service can be used easily and quickly.
[0049]
Further, according to the invention described in claim 8, since the server only has to determine whether or not the mobile agent can be accessed based on the service usage information related only to the server presented by the mobile agent. Thus, it is not necessary to perform access control by searching for the corresponding service usage information from the list information in which access control information for various servers is described, so that it is possible to determine whether or not access is possible very quickly. As a result, it is possible to reduce the authentication processing related to the service use of the mobile agent, and it is possible to reduce the data of the server and increase the processing speed.
[0050]
According to the invention described in claim 9, the management server centrally manages the service usage information of each user, and information on the user and information on the desired service from the mobile agent generated by the user. When the service is received, it is first determined whether or not the service can be used, and if it can be used, the service usage information that is the minimum information necessary to use the service is recorded. Issue tickets to mobile agents. The mobile agent then requests permission to use the service by presenting the ticket acquired from the management server to the server providing the desired service. The server judges the validity of the service usage information recorded in the presented ticket, and permits the use of the service if it is valid. In this way, the mobile agent issues the minimum information necessary for using the service provided by each server in the form of a ticket, and presents the ticket with a small amount of data to the server. Can be shown to the server.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a data communication system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a network according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Management server, 20 ... Service providing server (server), 30 ... Agent registration / occurrence server, 40 ... User terminal, 60 ... Service (data), 201 ... OS, 202 ... VM, 203 ... Agent middleware, 204 ... Access control unit, A ... Mobile agent

Claims (5)

Necessary for moving between servers in which agent middleware on the network is constructed based on the task given by the user and using the service providing server and the service provided by the service providing server for the server A management server that manages the service usage information associated with the user information and the service information, and is a mobile agent that executes processing on each server ,
When moved to the management server, to the management server, and processing for receiving the information services to be utilized as the user of the information which itself belongs,
Received service information corresponding to the service information to be the use to produce a ticket is recorded, to execute a process of transmitting to the self,
When moving to the service providing server, the service providing server presents the attributes of the service provided by the service providing server, and the server provides the service desired to be used based on the presented service attributes. whether to determine, characterized in utilizing the service to be the use, to the service providing server for providing the service, thereby executing the process for obtaining the use of the service by presenting the ticket corresponding to the service A mobile agent. A service providing server that provides a service to a mobile agent that moves on a network based on a task given by a user,
Determining means for determining whether or not the service can be used based on service usage information recorded in the ticket presented by the mobile agent;
Service providing means for providing a service to the mobile agent based on the determination result;
After the mobile agent moves to itself, after presenting the attribute of the service provided by the mobile agent to the mobile agent, the mobile agent identifies itself as a service providing server corresponding to the task given by the user. The service providing server, wherein the ticket is presented from the mobile agent. Based on the task given by the user, the mobile agent that moves between the servers on the network uses the service information that is required when the service provided by each server is used as the user information and the service. A management server that manages the information in association with
Service usage information extracting means for extracting the service usage information based on the received information when receiving information on the user to which the mobile agent belongs and information on the service to be used from the mobile agent;
Ticket creating means for creating a ticket recording the service usage information extracted by the service usage information extracting means;
A management server comprising issuing means for issuing the ticket created by the ticket creating means to the mobile agent;
A mobile agent according to claim 1;
A data communication system comprising the service providing server according to claim 2. Necessary for moving between servers in which agent middleware on the network is constructed based on the task given by the user and using the service providing server and the service provided by the service providing server for the server A management server that manages the service usage information associated with the user information and the service information, and is a mobile agent that executes processing on each server ,
When moved to the management server, to the management server, and processing for receiving the information services to be utilized as the user of the information which itself belongs,
Received service information corresponding to the service information to be the utilization to execute a process of transmitting the ticket recorded,
Access a server managing a list describing services provided by each service providing server, and provide the server with the service desired to be used based on the ticket received by the ticket receiving means and the list When the service providing server selected is accessed, the selected service providing server is accessed, and the service desired to be used is used for the service providing server, the ticket corresponding to the service is presented to use the service. A mobile agent characterized by having the requested process executed. A data communication system comprising a management server, a mobile agent, and a service providing server,
The management server
Based on the task given by the user, the mobile agent that moves between the servers on the network uses the service information that is required when the service provided by each server is used as the user information and the service. A management server that manages the information in association with
Service usage information extracting means for extracting the service usage information based on the received information when receiving the information of the user to which the mobile agent belongs and the information of the service to be used from the mobile agent, and the service usage information Ticket creating means for creating a ticket recording service usage information extracted by the extracting means, and issuing means for issuing the ticket created by the ticket creating means to the mobile agent,
The service providing server includes:
A server that provides a service to a mobile agent that moves on a network based on a task given by a user, based on the service usage information recorded in a ticket presented by the mobile agent, A determination unit that determines whether or not a service can be used; and a service providing unit that provides a service to the mobile agent based on a determination result of the determination unit;
Any of the servers
Managing a list of services provided by each service providing server;
The mobile agent is
A mobile agent that moves between servers on a network based on a task given by a user, wherein service usage information required when using a service provided by each of the servers includes the user information and the user information Corresponding to the information of the user to which the user belongs and the information of the service to be used and the information of the service to be used transmitted by the transmitting means to the management server managed in association with the service information A ticket receiving means for receiving the service use information recorded from the management server; and a server managing the list, and the ticket received by the ticket receiving means and the list based on the list. Select the service providing server that provides the service you want to use, and access the selected service providing server. And, when using the service to be the use, the data communication system, characterized by comprising a service requesting means for requesting the use of the service by presenting the ticket corresponding to the service.

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