JP2002259584A - Method, system, transmission terminal, and reception terminal for distributing news and message using semantic data network - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method, a system, and terminals for distributing news and messages without any mediators. SOLUTION: The system connects news user terminals 31 to 33 via a semantic data network 10, which have filters to select an event type and an acquisition condition in order to receive the selected data being sent as an event and transmitted after the original data is converted to the event. The system sets the filter to select desired news that meets transmission conditions in the terminals 31 and 32 for newsreaders 1 and 2 respectively. News providers 1 to 3 transmit the news data as the events by using terminals 41 to 43. The terminals 31 and 32 of the newsreaders 1 and 2 only receive the events of the news data that meets the transmission conditions of the filter being set.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to semantic information for specifying content that meets the interests of end users from content distributed on a network, or for specifying the optimal consumer to which a content provider should distribute content. The present invention relates to a news / message distribution method and an operation system using a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 53 shows the structure of a news distribution service realized by a conventional news distribution system. In this conventional news distribution system, terminals 101 and 102 of news users 1 and 2, a server 200 of a news distribution agent, and terminals 30 of news providers 1 to 3.
1 to 303 are connected via a communication network such as the Internet 500.

[0003] This conventional news distribution service is realized by selecting news information desired by a news user from news information provided by a news provider and distributing the selected news information to the news user. You.

A news distribution method performed by the conventional news distribution system will be described with reference to FIG.
The numbers in parentheses in FIG. 53 indicate the order in which information is transmitted or the order in which processing is performed.

[0005] (1) News users 1 and 2 who wish to distribute news use the news browsing application of the terminals 101 and 102 to identify news users, information on news distribution destinations, and the like. User registration for registering the user information of.

[0006] (2) Next, the news users 1 and 2 use the news browsing application of the terminals 101 and 102 to set distribution conditions, which are the conditions of news information desired to be distributed, as information distribution agents. To the server 200.

(3) On the other hand, the news providers 1 to 3 use the news providing application programs of the terminals 301 to 303 to determine the news information to be provided and what distribution conditions the news information matches. The information is transmitted to the news distribution mediation server 200 together with the indicated information.

[0008] (4) The news distribution agent checks the news information transmitted from the terminals 301 to 303 of the news provider against the distribution conditions registered in the server 200 and registers the registered distribution conditions. Is transmitted to the terminal of the news user who registered the distribution condition.

(5) Server 200 of news distribution mediator
Receives the news information from, pays the news distribution agent for the received news information.

(6) Also, the news providers 1 to 3
Pay a mediation fee to the news distribution broker.

(7) Further, in some cases, the news distribution broker performs payment for paying a part of the fee received from the news user to the news providers 1 to 3.

Further, a conventional message delivery service is
This is realized by the message receiver selecting message information desired to be delivered from the message information transmitted by the message sender and delivering the message information to the message receiver. In the conventional news distribution system shown in FIG. 53, a news user is a message recipient,
This is similarly realized by setting the news provider as the message sender.

[0013]

In the above-mentioned conventional news / message distribution system, the news information provided by the news provider or the message information transmitted by the message sender is distributed to the news information or the message information. In order to deliver to a desired news user or message receiver, an intermediary is required to intervene, and thus has the following problems. (1) When the number of news users or message recipients increases, the mediator must frequently change the distribution conditions from a large number of news users or message recipients, and the unspecified large number of distribution conditions must be changed. It is difficult to respond to changes in real time. (2) An intermediary fee is generated, or an advertisement is provided by an intermediary. (3) With the increase in news users / message recipients and news providers / message senders who use the news / message distribution service, the load on the server operated by the intermediary is concentrated, and the real-time nature of news / message distribution is increased. In addition, the cost becomes large and expensive large-scale server machines are required. (4) The news user / message receiver and the news provider / message sender know the existence of the intermediary, and connect to the download server or the FTP server operated by the intermediary to register the user, register the distribution conditions, or register the news / Although it is necessary to send a message, the number of contents distributed on a network is increasing with the spread of the Internet, and it is difficult and time-consuming to find an optimal news / message delivery service for oneself.

(5) What kind of news information / message information do you want to distribute?
Confidential information related to the privacy of the message recipient is centrally managed by the mediator, and no danger distribution is performed when the server used by the mediator is invaded.
If the confidential information management of the intermediary is unreliable,
Disclosing privacy information to an intermediary itself is anxious.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and has been made in view of the fact that it is possible to operate a news / message distribution service using a network without going through an intermediary. A news / message delivery method and delivery system that can solve the above-mentioned problems and improve the real-time nature of news / message delivery and improve the security of confidential information of news users / message recipients. It is intended to be realized.

[0016]

In order to achieve the above object, a news distribution method according to the present invention comprises a transmitting terminal for transmitting data as an event, and a transmitting terminal for selectively receiving the data transmitted as an event. , A news user wants to distribute among news information provided by a news provider using a semantic information network composed of a receiving terminal to which a filter consisting of an event type and an acquisition condition is set A news distribution method using a semantic information network that selects news information to be distributed and distributes the news information to the news user, wherein the terminal of the news user has a distribution that is a condition of the news information desired to be distributed. Setting a condition as a filter for the semantic information network; Transmitting news information as an event to the semantic information network; and a news user terminal setting a distribution condition of the news information desired to be received as a filter, the news information transmitted as an event. Receiving from the semantic information network.

According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the real-timeness of news distribution by enabling the operation of a news distribution service using a network without the intervention of an intermediary. The security of privacy and confidential information is improved. In addition, the absence of an intermediary distributes the load and eliminates intermediaries.

The message delivery method according to the present invention further comprises a transmitting terminal for transmitting data as an event, and a terminal for selectively receiving the data transmitted as an event.
Using a semantic information network composed of a receiving terminal in which a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition is set, a message receiver wishes to deliver from among message information transmitted by the message sender. A message delivery method using a semantic information network for selecting message information and delivering the message information to the message recipient, wherein the terminal of the message recipient is a delivery condition that is a condition of the message information desired to be delivered. Setting as a filter to the semantic information network; transmitting the message information to be delivered to the semantic information network as an event by the message sender terminal; Messages for which delivery conditions are set as filters Terminal di recipient, and a step of receiving the message information transmitted as an event from the semantic information network.

According to the present invention, by enabling the operation of a message delivery service using a network without the intervention of an intermediary, the real-timeness of message delivery can be improved and the privacy of a message receiver can be improved. The security of confidential information is improved. In addition, the absence of an intermediary distributes the load and eliminates intermediaries.

Further, another message distribution method of the present invention comprises a transmitting terminal for transmitting data as an event, and an event type and an acquisition condition for selectively receiving the data transmitted as an event. Using the semantic information network composed of the receiving terminal to which the filter is set, the message receiver selects the message information desired to be delivered from the message information transmitted by the message sender and receives the message. A message delivery method using a semantic information network, wherein the terminal of the message receiver uses a delivery condition, which is a condition of the message information desired to be delivered, as a filter to the meaning information network. And setting the message to be delivered by the message sender terminal. Transmitting, as an event, a message identifier corresponding to the message information to the semantic information network; and a terminal of a message receiver that sets a distribution condition of the message information desired to be distributed as a filter is transmitted as an event. Receiving the message identifier from the semantic information network,
Converting the received message identifier into message information.

In the present invention, the terminal of the message sender is:
Instead of sending the message information directly to the message recipient, the message recipient's terminal converts the received message identifier into the message information so that the message identifier corresponding to the message information is sent. . Therefore, according to the present invention, a fixed message can be delivered without error, and delivery of a message containing an inappropriate expression or the like can be prevented.

In another message delivery method according to the present invention, the terminal of the message receiver is configured to be able to set a time at which a filter to be set is deleted. Delete the filter set for the network.

According to the present invention, the filter once set is automatically deleted at the designated time, so that it is possible to receive only the event transmitted to the semantic information network during a certain period. Become.

[0024]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Before describing the present invention, a distributed network system which is a prerequisite of the present invention and has enhanced message characteristics of information to be transmitted will be described.

As a distributed type network system, a system using Napster is known, and as a network system with enhanced dispersibility, Gnute is used.
One using lla is known.

First, a network system using Napster will be described. The Napster user sends a search request to the Napster server that stores the information of the file published by each Napster user, and the Napster server sends information such as the IP address of the Napster user who owns the searched file. Reply. The actual exchange of files is performed by the user who has obtained the IP address directly accessing the Napster user who owns the target file without going through a Napster server.

In the case of a network system using Gnutella, the terminal of the Gnutella user is:
The state of the connected partner terminal is periodically checked, and messages and file search requests are relayed. The search results are returned to the person who made the search request, and the subsequent file transfer is performed directly between the users, similar to Napster. As a result, a network is constructed without using a server.

Of these network systems,
The system using Napster does not achieve the object of the present invention because it requires a server corresponding to an intermediary which is a problem of the present invention.

In a network system using Gnutella, a message or file search request is made without using a server, but information to be transmitted is merely a file search request, and a file transfer by a user who confirms this response is performed. Is performed between users, and is not suitable for a form that requires one-to-many exchange such as an auction or a reverse auction.

There is a semantic information network system described below as a distributed network system in which the message of the information to be transmitted is enhanced, and the present invention is based on the premise that such a semantic information network system is used.

First, a semantic information network (Semantic I
An outline of an nformation-Oriented Network (hereinafter, referred to as a SION) will be described. The SION is a network that can deliver an event to a destination based on semantic information. FIG. 1 shows a conceptual model of the SION. In FIG. 1, each terminal 2 has semantic information (Semantic
Information: SI) is registered for ION1.
On the other hand, the terminal 2 that transmits the event sends an event composed of semantic information (Semantic information) and data (Data) shown in FIG. Here,
The semantic information describes characteristics of data included in the event, and is positioned as meta information of the data. For example, the semantic information is as follows:-Deliver the data to "Tokyo residents". -Deliver the data to "People interested in classics". -Deliver the data to "people who have a communication environment of 1 Mbps or more".・ Deliver the data to "people who are traveling on Mejiro Street". Deliver the data to "content providers with content that matches the keyword (eg, travel)". Is used.

The SION dynamically determines an object (terminal, person, software, etc.) to which data should be delivered based on the semantic information as described above, and delivers the data to the specified target person. It is an autonomous decentralized meta-network that can make notifications. By using this SION, it is possible to directly propose own information only to users who are appropriate for the information provider to provide without using a broker. In this case, a business model that enables peer-to-peer information proposals with a broker-independent type (non-broker model) is called a patronage model (or a patronage-type information proposal model or non-broker model). Call. Similarly, a real-time information search that allows a user to directly search for desired information without using a search service (broker) is also possible. In addition, it is possible to apply to the following services and the like as a request-by-order information proposal service. (1) Manufacturing company: I want to send product information mainly to customers who are likely to be interested in their products. (2) Advertiser: I want to send a personalized advertisement for each customer. (3) Barter: I want to buy and sell or exchange products based on agreement between users.

Note that what information is set in the data part of the event depends on the service. For example, various usage forms such as an entity of information, a reference to information (URL, distributed object identifier, etc.), a proxy (Jini proxy, etc.), and a mobile agent are possible.

Next, the details of the SION will be described.

<SION Architecture> First, SIO
N network architecture will be described. FIG. 3 shows a network model of the SION. Here, for convenience of explanation, the terminal 2 is replaced with the transmitting terminal 21 of the event sender.
And the receiving terminal 22 of the event receiver. The event receiver uses the reception terminal 22 to receive the semantic information (the type of the received event and the acquisition condition) of the event desired to be received by the SIO as metadata.
Register with N1. This is called a filter. On the other hand, the event sender uses the transmission terminal 21 to
By sending an event to 1, the SION is incentived. This event is composed of semantic information and data describing characteristics of the event, as shown in FIG. FIG. 4 shows the definition of the semantic information. The semantic information is event metadata and is an instance of a semantic information type (event type).

The SION 1 is an autonomous distributed collation network for collating (filtering) an event sent by an event sender with a filter registered by an event recipient. As a result of matching, the filter that passed the event (reacted to the event)
n) Then, the receiving terminal 22 of the corresponding event receiver autonomously starts. With this mechanism, it becomes possible to search and find the target terminal 2 in a scalable and real-time manner from an unspecified number of terminals 2.

Next, the event type will be described.
FIG. 5 shows an example of defining an event type that is a template of an event. As shown in FIG. 5, the event type includes an event type name (Event type name) and a condition name (in FIG. 5, “Service” and “CPU power” correspond to each other), and a data type for each condition name ( St
A conditional expression (corresponding to == or> =) is defined. The event type name is a name for uniquely identifying the event type.

The parent type of the event type can be inherited.

As shown in FIG. 6, an event is created according to the data structure of the event type. An event is composed of an event type name, a combination of condition name and condition value, and
It consists of a data section. If the condition name, condition expression, and condition value defined in the event do not match the event type, an error will occur. However, the condition names used in the event may be a subset of the event type.

FIG. 7 shows a definition example of the filter. The filter accepts the event type name (Event type nam
e), attribute name (in FIG. 7, "CPU power" or "Ag
e ") and an attribute value (equivalent to 200 and 25 in FIG. 7). Only events belonging to the event type defined by the event type name to be accepted are subjected to filtering. Can have multiple event type names defined,
By specifying a wild card (*. *), It is possible to target all events. If the attribute name defined by the filter does not exist in the condition name of the event type defined by the event type name to be accepted, an error occurs. However, a subset of the event type may be used.

Next, the configuration of the SION 1 will be described. FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a SION1. As shown in FIG. 8, SION1 is a semantic information switch (Semantic Informa).
Option-Switch, shown as SI-SW in the drawing, Semantic Information -Router, shown as SI-R in the drawing, Semantic Information Gateway (Semant
ic Information-Gateway, which is shown as SI-GW in the drawing).

The semantic information switch (SI-SW) collates the semantic information registered as a filter with the semantic information given to the event, and as a result, activates a switching mechanism for activating the terminal 2 of the event receiver that fired. provide. The semantic information switch (SI-SW) and each terminal 2 are connected in a star configuration.

The semantic information router (SI-R) selects an event route between the semantic information switches,
And transfers the event sent from the to the semantic information switch to another semantic information switch. This is achieved by dynamic event routing based on semantic information.

The semantic information gateway (SI-GW)
Transfer events between event places. Here, the event place is a minimum unit (ontology domain) that guarantees a common semantic information space. In the event place, the uniqueness of the ontology system such as the name, concept, vocabulary, meaning, and association of the event type is guaranteed, and the semantic information is described based on the common ontology. Basically, the event sent from the terminal 2 of the event sender is distributed only in the event place, but the semantic information gateway (SI-
Through the GW), it is possible to exchange events between event places having different ontology systems. At this time, the semantic information gateway (SI-G
W) performs the ontology conversion of the event, and then transfers the event to a different event place.

<Operation mechanism and interface specification>
As an example of a method of implementing the SION1, an implementation method using a distributed object technology will be described. Here, SI-SWsS
The IR and the SI-GW are implemented as distributed objects called an event place object (EPO), a shared link object (SLO), and a federation agent (FA), respectively. The operation mechanism and control interface of the ION 1 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. In addition, SION-MT (Managem)
ENT Tool) or the ION interface, the ION1 network interface can be used. Also, using MT, EPO
Withdrawal, increase / decrease, dynamic change of physical link information, PO migration (dynamic change of EPO to which PO is bound),
It is easy to collect the firing rate, collect statistical information on popular coastal information and popular information.

Startup and Initialization of Event Place Factory (FIG. 9 (1)) First, the SION operator starts an event place factory (EPF) on an arbitrary host, and then starts the EPF.
Is initialized. At this time, a host name capable of generating an event place (EP) and a storage location of an executable file of the EP are given to the EPF. These are called EP generation information.

Request for generation of event place (FIG. 9)
(2)) Next, the EP operator requests the EPF to generate an EP. At this time, an EP name and an EP attribute are given.
Here, the EP attribute indicates whether the generated EP is used for a purpose-built model or an inquiry model, and indicates the direction of the flow of the event.

Generation of Event Place (FIG. 9 (3)) Next, the EPF that has received the EP generation request generates an EP. Specifically, at this time, an event place management object (EPMO) for managing the EP is generated. That is, the processing request to the EP is EPMO
This is the same as the processing request to. The EPF returns the identifier of the generated EP (that is, EPMO) to the generation request source. The EPMO is generated for a dynamically determined host from among the hosts capable of generating an EP specified in (1) of FIG. As a method of determining the host to which EPMO is to be started, the destination to be started is determined cyclically.
It is possible to select a method such as deciding according to the traffic or explicitly specifying the boot destination host.

An event place initialization request (FIG. 9)
(4)) Next, the EP operator requests EPMO to initialize the EP. At this time, a single event place object or a multiple event place object is designated. When a multiple event place object is specified, it is necessary to provide physical link information (topology) of the event place object (EPO) together. Here, the physical link information of the EPO expresses which other EPO knows which other EPO exists.

For example, as shown in FIG.
32 is EPO1 • 31, EPO3 • 33, EPO4 •
Knows the existence of EPO3, but EPO33
・ It expresses that only 32 existences are known. As described above, the multiple EPO aims at improving the scalability by distributing the load of the event matching process in the EP.

The EPMO is used to select an EPO from the host list capable of generating an EP specified in (1) of FIG.
Is dynamically determined, and EPO is generated there. At this time, each EPO has one filter factory (FF) and one statistical information collection object (S
O) are always generated accompanying them, and these correspond to SI-SW. Further, a shared link object (SLO) is generated accompanying each EPO according to the number of physical links. For example, three S for EPO2 · 32
LO is generated (SLO2,1, SLO2,3, SLO in the figure)
These correspond to SI-R. E
The method of determining the activation destination of the PO is the same as that of the EPMO, but it is also possible to fix the EPO to be used for each event type. The EPMO generates an event type factory (ETF) in the EP. Within the EP, a unified event type namespace is guaranteed by the ETF.

A session establishment request for event transmission to the event place (FIG. 9 (5)) Next, a request is made to the EP to establish a session. EPMO
Is a proxy object (PO) for each session request
Generate The session identifier, which is the identifier of the PO, is returned to the request source.

Note that the EPMO uses the PO
Is instructed which EPO to use (to bind with which EPO). This instruction is for multiple EPO
However, the method of determining the EPO to be bound is the same as that of the EPMO. When a session establishment request is made to the EP, it is necessary to specify whether the session is a session for event transmission or a session for event reception. In this example, a session for event transmission is specified.

Registration of Event Type (FIG. 9 (6)) Next, registration of an event type is requested to the PO. At this time, the PO requests the ETF to generate an event type object (ETO). Further, the event type is stored in the generated ETO. On the other hand, an event type registration can be requested from the EP. At this time,
EPMO requests the ETF to generate an ETO, and stores the event type in the generated ETO. Generally, an event sender registers an event type via a PO. On the other hand, the EP operator registers an event type in the EP. Note that registering an event type with the same name will result in an error.

Request for establishing a session for receiving an event with respect to an event place (FIG. 9 (7)) Next, a request is made to the EP to establish a session for receiving an event. At this time, the requester of the session establishment (event receiving object) sets the identifier of the event receiving object, which is the event notification destination, and the event notification method (firing type, look-in type) as parameters. Give as.

Subsequently, the EPMO generates a PO for each session request. The session identifier is returned to the request source. The EPMO instructs the PO to use the EPO when the PO is generated. This instruction is required in multiple EPO, but the method of determining the EPO to be bound is the same as that of EPMO.

Request for generation of filter object (FIG. 9)
(8)) Next, request the PO to generate a filter object (FO). At this time, the PO requests the FF to generate the FO. At this time, the FF attached to the EPO bound to the PO is used. The identifier of the generated FO is returned to the FO generation request source via the PO.

Setting of filter value (FIG. 9 (9)) Next, the PO is requested to set a filter value in the FO using the FO identifier as a parameter. Note that the event type name stored in the filter object (that is, the event type name to be filtered)
It is possible to selectively request the ETO to check whether the data structure (filter value) of the FO is correct, using the key as a key. If it is not correct, an error. However, when a wild card is specified, this check processing is not performed at all.

Filter Registration (FIG. 9 (10)) Next, after setting a filter value in the FO, a filter registration is requested to the PO using the filter identifier of F as a parameter. At this time, the filter identifier is returned to the registration request source. With this as a trigger, it becomes possible to receive events. Note that a plurality of filters can be registered through one PO. (For this, a plurality of different FOs are registered as filters through one PO, or the same FO is registered as a filter a plurality of times. However, all filters registered for one PO have an “OR relationship”.

Event transmission (FIG. 9A) Next, the event sender transmits an event to the PO. At this time, the PO can selectively request the ETO to check whether the data structure of the event is correct, using the event type name stored in the event as a key. When this check process is selected, if it is correct, the process proceeds to the next process (FIG. 9B), and if it is not correct, an error occurs.

Event collation request (FIG. 9B) Next, the PO transfers the event to the EPO. At this time,
EPO creates a thread. Note that a thread is generated for each event, and each thread performs multiplex processing of the event.

Collation with Filter (FIG. 9C) Next, the thread (EPO) performs filtering by collating the event with the filter. These include exact, partial, and weighted matches,
Can be specified when setting the filter value.

Activation of proxy object (FIG. 9)
(D)) Next, as a result of matching with the filter, when the event passes the filter, the corresponding PO is activated and receives this event. At this time, the PO can selectively register the received event type, value, event ID, and the like in the SO. From this information, the SO can measure the firing rate of the event (for each event type and each event) and the highly reputed events that are prevalent in the EP.

Activation of event reception object (FIG. 9)
(E) Next, the PO activates the event receiving object and passes the event to the event receiving object. This corresponds to the firing type (interrupt type) event notification.

Look-in type event notification (FIG. 9)
(F) On the other hand, instead of the PO activating the event receiving object, the event receiving object itself can also take out the event spooled in the PO corresponding to the event receiving object. This corresponds to a look-in type event notification. There are various triggers for activating the event receiving object depending on the service form. As a typical example, a case in which an end user makes a content proposal request to the event receiving object is considered.

<Filter Management Method> Next, a filter management method in each EPO will be described.

First, a session for receiving an event is established. At this time, one PO is generated for each session request, and this PO is bound to any one EPO. Each EPO is accompanied by one FF. As a result, the EPO used by the PO is uniquely determined, and all subsequent processing is performed via the PO (event receiving session).

Next, an FO is generated, and a filter value (a type of an event to be received and its acquisition condition) is set for the FO. Subsequently, a filter is registered using the FO identifier as a parameter. At this time, the FO identifier is stored in each filter. Each EPO manages the filters registered via the PO based on the following rules.

First, the “type of event to be received” set in the FO is referred to using the FO identifier stored in the filter. Subsequently, the filters are classified for each type of event to be received, and the filters classified for each event type are further classified and managed for each PO.

Referring to FIG. 11 regarding this management rule,
A case where a filter is registered via PO1 will be described. Here, it is assumed that “event type X” is set as the type of the event to be received in the FO specified at the time of filter registration. At this time, EPO
Corresponds to the filter 1 in FIG. 11, and similarly, the filter registered via the PO2 corresponds to the filter 2. In each PO, a plurality of filters can be registered. However, the registered filters have an “OR relationship”.

First, the event of the event type X is EP
When it arrives at O, matching with filter 1 is performed. As a result, when the filter 1 fires, the PO1 is activated.
Next, matching with filter 2 is performed, and as a result, when filter 2 fires, PO2 is activated. At this time, since the filters 2 and 3 have an “OR relationship”, the matching with the filter 3 is not performed. By using such a filter management method, each E for one event
The number of times of the collation processing at the PO can be basically made equal to or less than the number of POs (the number of reception sessions).

<Event Routing Method> Next, an event routing method will be described.

The EPO (SI-SW) accommodates event senders and receivers (entities such as terminals) in a star format via a session. Furthermore, EPO (SI-SW)
Matches the filter registered by the event receiver (event receiving object) with the event sent by the event sender, and as a result, notifies the event only to the event receiver corresponding to the fired filter (matching event reception (Delivery of the event only to the person).

For this reason, when the number of event senders (the number of events) and the number of event receivers (the number of filters) increase, the processing capacity of the EPO becomes saturated in proportion thereto. Therefore, the SION architecture provides a multiple EPO as a means for realizing an EP with high scalability. Multiple EPO refers to the number of EPOs
The purpose of the present invention is to achieve a high scalability of EP from the following two viewpoints.

The first point is load distribution and autonomous distribution. This is to distribute the load of event filtering processing by distributing event senders and receivers to a plurality of EPOs, so as to prevent a bottleneck factor accompanying processing concentration. . Further, each EPO achieves distributed coordination by a mechanism that can operate autonomously without being affected by other EPOs.

The second point is reduction of network traffic and optimization of the filtering process. This is EP
This is to minimize the amount of communication by not transferring unnecessary events between Os, and to reduce unnecessary filtering processing.

In FIG. 10, for EPO3 • 33,
It is assumed that a filter of event type X is registered as a type of an event to be received. Here, when an event of event type X is sent to EPO4, it is necessary to transfer this event to EPO3 via EPO2. At this time, the event must not be transferred to EPO1 in which the filter of the event type X is not registered. What controls such event routing between EPOs is a shared link object (SLO), which corresponds to the SI-R described above.

Hereinafter, the SI-R will be described in detail.

First, at the time of EP initialization, an SLO is generated accompanying each EPO based on physical link information (EPO topology). For example, in FIG.
, Three SLOs are generated. These correspond to SLO2,1, SLO2,3, SLO2,4 in the figure. This S
LOi, j establishes a shared link (SLi, j) for transferring events from EPOj to EPOj. That is, as shown in FIGS. 9 and 12, SLOi, j is ELOi, j.
By establishing an event receiving session with POj, and establishing an event transmitting session with EPOi, a shared link SLi, j, which is a logical link for event transfer, is established. , Means the establishment of a session by SLO at the time of initialization of the EP, and does not include the filter registration processing).

After the initialization of the EP, the event receiver
It is possible to establish a session to P and register a filter via the session. At this time, an event path is set according to the established shared link. For example, in FIG. 12, an event receiver (Event
When the receiver 3 registers a filter for performing event type X event reception in the EPO 3 via the PO 3, the PO 3 registers the event type X filter in the EPO 3 and notifies the SLO 3, j ( Here, SLO3,2) is notified, and SLO3,2 is SL3,2.
Is used to register a filter of event type X for EPO2. This is performed via the PO of the receiving session assigned to SLO3,2, as described above. Similarly, this PO indicates to that effect that SLO2,3
Is notified to other SLO2, j except for. SLO2, j
(J ≠ 3) registers the filter in EPO using SL2, j. The process is repeated in the same manner until all EPOs are set to the path for the event X.

A series of paths established for the event type X is called an event path. this is,
The filter registration via PO3 is a trigger, and the event path setting request for each event type sequentially and autonomously propagates to all EPOs. That is,
Each EPO needs to recognize only the adjacent EPO.
For this reason, it is possible to establish the event path with a simple and unified autonomous logic as compared with the event path setting / management method by centralized management and broadcast of the event path.

FIG. 13 shows the registration status of the filter in the EPO 1 at this time. As a result of the event receiver 3 registering the filter via PO3, filter 1 becomes EPO1.
Will be registered. Setting an event path refers to registering a filter for event transfer in a series of EPOs based on shared link information. Also,
In the filter registered by the SLO, only the event type name to be received is set, and the acquisition condition is not set.
Filter only the event type name.

In this situation, the event receiver 2 receives P
Via O2, filter the event type X to EPO
When the event path is registered in EPO2, the setting of the new event path spreads to all EPOs as described above. As a result, the filter 2 is registered in EPO1, and the filter is registered every time an event path setting request is made. Will be done.

At this time, when an event of the event type X is sent to the EPO1, the filter 1 fires and the SLO
2,1 is activated. SLO2,1 reports this event as EPO
SLO3,2 is activated by sending to SLO2. Further, the event is transferred to EPO3 via SLO3,2. To prevent infinite transfer of events between SL2,3 and SL3,2, the event is
As one of the control information, a maximum of two identifiers of the passed EPO are stored in the latest order.

As described above, since filter 1 and filter 2 have an OR relationship, when filter 1 fires, comparison with filter 2 is not performed. Therefore, even though the filter 1 exists, it is possible to prevent the redundant overhead of the filtering process caused by newly registering the filter 2 from occurring at all. This means that when an event path is set, there is no need to rebuild all event paths including the existing event path, and a simple and unified event path autonomous setting becomes possible. .

If there is a session established by the event receiver in EPO 1 and a filter registration via the session (corresponding to the filter 3 of POn), after all the filtering processing corresponding to SLO is completed, Is performed. That is, the event transfer processing to another EPO is performed with priority, and then,
The collation processing in own EPO is started.

A further effect of the event routing method described above is that it is not necessary to reconstruct an event path when deregistering a filter. For example, when the event receiver 3 cancels the registration of the registered filter via the PO 3, the cancellation request sequentially and autonomously spreads, similarly to the case of the registration. As a result, in EPO1,
Only the registration of the filter 1 will be cancelled, but the filter 2 survives (hereinafter, the filter 2 forwards the event instead of the filter 1). Event path consistency is guaranteed.

By using such an autonomous distributed routing control method, it is possible to easily realize interconnection and distributed coordination of EPO. Accordingly, a transition from a small network to a large network, a transition from a local network to a global network, and the like can be smoothly performed. Also,
Global networking with a bottom-up approach can be easily achieved with common logic.

FIGS. 14 to 17 are diagrams for explaining the SI-R in the physical link having the ring type coupling.

For example, as shown in FIG. 15, in a physical link having a ring-type connection, EPO2 is EPO1,
It expresses that you know the existence of EPO3. As described above, the multiple EPO aims at improving the scalability by distributing the load of the event matching process in the EP.

The EPMO is used to select an EP from the host list capable of generating an EP specified in (1) of FIG.
The host that generates O is dynamically determined, and EPO is generated there. At this time, each EPO is always accompanied by one filter factory (FF) and one statistical information collection object (SO), and these are generated by the SI-S
W. Further, one shared link object (SLO) is generated for each EPO according to the physical link. For example, SLO2 and SLO3 in the figure are generated for EPO2. This corresponds to SI-R. The method of determining the activation destination of EPO is the same as that of EPMO, but it is also possible to fix the EPO used for each event type. Note that the EPMO generates an event type factory (ETF) in the EP. E
Within P, a unified event type namespace is guaranteed by the ETF.

Hereinafter, the SI-R will be described in detail.

First, at the time of initializing an EP, an SLO is generated accompanying each EPO based on physical link information (EPO topology). For example, in FIG.
SLO2,3 is generated for O2. This SLOi, j
Establishes a shared link (SLi, j) for transferring events from EPOj to EPOi. That is, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 16 and FIG. 16, SLOi, j establishes an event reception session with EPOj, while
By establishing an event transmission session for i, a shared link SLi, j, which is a logical link for event transfer, is established.
This means that the session is established by the SLO when the EP is initialized, and does not include the filter registration process.) As a result, a unidirectional ring-shaped shared link SLi, j is established.

After the initialization of the EP, the event receiver sets the E
It is possible to establish a session to P and register a filter via the session. At this time, an event path is set according to the established shared link. For example, in FIG. 16, the event receiver (Event
It is assumed that the Receiver 3 registers a filter for receiving an event of the event type X via the PO 3 in the EPO 3. At this time, the PO3 registers the event type X filter in the EPO3 and notifies the SLO to that effect.
Notify 3,1. At this time, SLO3,1 is given as a parameter that the source of the filter registration request is EPO3. SLO3,1 uses SL3,1 to register an event type X filter for EPO1. This is performed via the PO of the receiving session assigned to SLO3,1, as described above. Similarly,
This PO notifies the SLOs 1 and 2 of that fact.
SLO1,2 registers a filter in EPO2 using SL1,2. The process is repeated in the same manner until all EPOs are set to the path for the event X. Note that this processing is performed by a filter registration request source (here, EP
This is repeated until immediately before O3). That is, SLO2,3
Does not register the filter in EPO3.

FIG. 17 shows the registration status of the filter in EPO1 at this time. As a result of the event receiver 3 registering the filter via PO3, filter 1 becomes EPO1.
Will be registered. Setting an event path refers to registering a filter for event transfer in a series of EPOs based on shared link information. In addition,
In the filter registered by the SLO, only the event type name to be received is set, and the acquisition condition is not set.
Filter only the event type name.

In this situation, the event receiver 2 receives the P
Via O2, filter the event type X to EPO
When the event path is registered in EPO2, the setting of the new event path spreads to all EPOs as described above. As a result, the filter 2 is registered in EPO1, and the filter is registered every time an event path setting request is made. Will be done.

At this time, when an event of the event type X is sent to the EPO1, the filter 1 fires and the SLO
3,1 is activated. SLO3,1 reports the event as EPO
SLO2,3 is activated by sending to SLO3. Further, the event is transferred to EPO2 via SLO2,3. In order to prevent the event from going infinitely, the event is one of the control information.
The identifier of the EPO in which the event has occurred is held, and when the event circulates and returns to the event-originating EPO (SLO), the event is discarded.

Next, an event routing method different from the above-described event routing method will be described. This routing method uses shared links (logical links).
Are established in the same manner as in the method described above.
This event routing method differs from the method described above in that no event path is established, and SLOi, j
At the same time as establishing the shared link SLi, j. At this time, a wild card is specified as a type of an event to be received in the registered filter. As a result, all events are set as transfer targets, and an event path for each event type is not established.

By specifying a wild card in the semantic information as described above, a ring-shaped shared link SL
Since the event circulates in i and j, the event can be delivered to all EPOs.

<Federation Method> Next, the federation method will be described with reference to FIG. The federation agent (FA) is an agent that establishes a federation between event places, and corresponds to the above-described SI-GW. For example, an event place (Event Place) A is an event place (Event Place)
Place) A case where a federation is established for B is considered. First, an FA belonging to event place A registers a filter for event place B. At this time, the event sender belonging to the event place B sends an event, and as a result, when this filter fires, the FA autonomously starts. This can regard the FA as one event recipient belonging to event place B. Next, the FA retransmits the acquired event to the event place A to which the FA belongs. this is,
FA can be considered as one event sender belonging to event place A.

As described above, it is possible to easily realize the federation between the event places by using the FA having both roles. That is, it is possible to realize the federation between the event places with the same control logic as that of the single event place. Using this mechanism,
By interconnecting the event places, which are one basic configuration unit, a global collation network can be constructed by a bottom-up approach, and sharing of events across event places can be realized. Note that event place A and event place B
Have different ontologies, the FA belonging to the event place A converts the event acquired from the event place B into the ontology of the event place A, and then sends the event to the event place A.

When event transfer is performed across different ontology systems, ontology conversion is required.
As a conventional technique for performing this conversion, when a standard ontology is defined and an event is transferred to another event place, a method of transferring the event after temporarily converting the event to a format conforming to the standard ontology, and a method of transferring the event There are methods such as preparing an ontology conversion table for the number of combinations in advance.

However, the conventional method lacks flexibility to cope with dynamic federation of event places (dynamic start and release of federation). Therefore, in the present invention, as shown in FIG.
Holds only the difference (conversion information) from the ontology information of the adjacent event place in the ontology conversion table. In other words, this is a method in which each FA stores the conversion information in a distributed manner, and assures the consistency of the ontology system as a whole. This makes it possible to easily cope with dynamic federation between event places, but on the other hand, every time an event crosses an event place, an ontology conversion process occurs. It has the feature that processing overhead increases.

<Community and Evolved Network> Next, a community service, which is one of the killer services of SION1, will be described. An entity in a community service is an autonomous decentralized operation entity that can dynamically determine an activity mode by repeating learning, evolution, degeneration, and disappearance based on its own policy. Communities provide an efficient forum for such entities to communicate. In other words, entities in the community dynamically search for and identify entities that should communicate with themselves or that affect their behavior.
It is possible to discover / specify and interact with the specified entity.

This community can handle entities having the following characteristics in particular.

(1) An extremely large number of entities are present in a community with an extremely small granularity (an unspecified number of entities).

(2) The attribute of the entity changes in real time. Typical entity attributes include location information, time, and the like.

(3) The behavior of the entities in the community is not regular, and it is difficult to predict the behavior.

(4) Participation in the community, departure from the community, disappearance, duplication, etc. occur frequently and irregularly.

(5) The entities in the community are:
It is necessary to meet each other in real time based on policies, attributes, scenarios, and the like.

It is not easy in terms of performance to manage entities having such characteristics with a server or a mediator (broker) and to search and discover each other in real time. S
The ION1 EP is positioned as an execution environment of a community having such characteristics. That is, the community is a meta execution environment of the EP, and provides a place of communication with a higher level of abstraction than directly using the EP. By using the EP in the execution environment of the community, all the entities in the community can directly find the entity to communicate with without going through the broker. This is because communication of entities in the community is implemented as sending and receiving events in the EP.

FIG. 19 shows a conceptual model of a community. A user agent (UA) and an information and service providing agent (ISA) correspond to entities in a community. The UA is an agent that behaves autonomously as a user's agent.
It dynamically determines its own behavior according to location information, situation, tendency, etc., and interacts with ISAs and other U
Search for A and interact with them. An ISA is an agent that acts autonomously as an agent of an information provider or a service provider.
Search for UAs and other ISAs to interact with.
That is, a user suitable for providing his / her information is searched for and specified.

On the other hand, the community agent (Com
A) is an agent that manages the community. The EP operator sets the SION-
Controls and operates the SION via MT. Therefore, C
The omA can be considered as an agent of the EP operator. Basically, the operational policy of the community is defined by ComA. For example, UA, ISA
Authorization, such as joining, leaving, extinction, duplication, etc. to the community for such entities, understanding and controlling the information distributed within the community (such as deleting unsuitable events), statistical information within the community (trend information, reputable information Etc.) based on their own management policies.

Further, in order to achieve high scalability and reliability of the community, SION control such as increase / decrease, withdrawal, and migration of EPs and EPOs is executed according to the load status and the failure status. That is, by combining ION1 and ComA, ION1 learns from the autonomous decentralized network,
It evolves into an evolutionary network that can grow and evolve.
In this way, the ComA controls the behavior of the entities in the community and plays a role in self-organizing SION1. Further, the collaboration between the communities enables the sharing of information between the communities. For example, among the information distributed in the community A, only the top 10 most popular can be distributed to the community B. The processing flow is shown below.

First, the ComA of the community B instructs the FA of the event place B to “distribute only the top 10 most popular information among the information distributed in the community A to the community B”. I do.

Next, the FA inquires of the event place A about the top ten event types. In response to this, the event place A inquires the subordinate statistical information collection object (SO) and sends the result to the FA.
Return to.

Next, the FA creates an ontology conversion table based on the acquired event type, and sets a filter for the event place A. Hereafter, F
A can receive the event from the event place A.

Next, the FA converts the event obtained from the event place A into an ontology based on the ontology conversion table, and sends the event to the event place B.

According to the embodiment described above, the following two effects can be obtained.

First, the SIO on the distributed object environment
N network environments can be easily constructed.

Second, by allowing the service application to participate in the community as an entity,
It is possible to easily send out an event or to pick up a necessary event, so that mutual communication can be achieved.

As described above, the following effects can be obtained with the SION.

An event that has been distributed only in another event place can be taken into its own event place by the federation mechanism between event places via the FA. Conversely, by sending an event to another event place, it is possible to advertise the event distributed in the own event place. in this way,
Events can be shared between different event places, and interoperability between event places taking into account the ontology makes it possible to construct a global autonomous decentralized collation network based on a bottom-up approach.

[0124] The multiple EPO mechanism makes it possible to distribute the load of the filtering process to a plurality of EPOs, and the event routing mechanism between the EPOs that operates autonomously makes it possible to minimize network traffic. Become. This results in E
The total throughput of P can be scalably improved.

It becomes possible to directly search for and find an entity suitable for itself without going through a broker. For example, an information provider can specify a user who is suitable for the information provided by himself without knowing the existence of the user. Similarly, the user can search for and find an information provider suitable for his / her taste without knowing the existence of the information provider. That is, the user and the information provider are equivalent to each other. As a result, information can be transmitted in real time according to the own policy without relying on a specific broker. Further, when the number of entities to be searched is enormous or when the entities frequently enter and leave the search target domain, the search technique based on the non-broker model is particularly effective.

In the SION, the end point of the semantic information is a network. On the other hand, in a method of performing a peer-to-peer connection between terminals, the terminal of the semantic information is the terminal, so that the contents of the terminal are disclosed to the outside. Therefore, SION can realize higher security and privacy protection than the latter method.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention using a semantic information network system having the above contents will be described.

(First Embodiment) FIG. 20 is a diagram for explaining a news distribution service provided by a news distribution system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
This news distribution service is realized by selecting news information desired to be distributed from news information provided by a news provider and distributing the selected news information to the news user. Further, in the present embodiment, the semantic information network 10 in FIG. 20 is realized using the above-described event place, but the method of realizing the semantic information network 10 is not limited to this.

In the news distribution system of the present embodiment,
The terminals 31 and 32 of the news users 1 and 2 and the terminals 41 to 43 of the news providers are connected via the semantic information network 10.

[0130] The terminals 41 to 43 of the news providers function as transmitting terminals that transmit news information to the semantic information network 10 as events. Further, the news user terminals 31 and 32 function as receiving terminals in which a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition is set in order to selectively receive news information transmitted as an event.

Each of the news users 1 and 2 and the news providers 1 to 3 respectively use terminals 31, 32 and 4 such as PCs to be used.
In steps 1 to 43, middleware such as a CORBA-compliant ORB and the above-described event place factory generating mechanism are installed to generate an event place in its own terminal, or to access an event place on another network node. It is assumed that a session has been established and connected to the semantic information network 10. Further, it is assumed that an event type as shown in FIG. 21 is registered in the semantic information network 10 as an example.

For the registered event types, “news distribution” is defined as the event type name, and “region”, “date and time”, “forecast”, “route”, “industry”, “ "Sports" is defined. Each of these event properties has a "string type" as the event property value.
Is defined. These event properties are for setting conditions for news information to be distributed. For example, “region” is an event property used when news information relating to a certain region is desired to be distributed, "Date and time" is an event property used when distribution of news information at a specific date and time is desired.

Next, the news distribution method of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The numbers in parentheses in FIG. 20 indicate the order in which information is transmitted or the order in which processing is performed. Hereinafter, the operation of this embodiment will be described in the order of these numbers.

(1) News users 1 and 2
Using 1,32 news browsing applications,
From the application screens shown in FIGS. 22, 23, and 24, a distribution condition which is a condition of news information desired to be distributed is input. The news browsing application sets the input distribution condition in the semantic information network 10 as a filter.

[0135] Here, as an example, user 1
It is assumed that the user 2 has set the information as shown in FIG. 23 and the information as shown in FIG. At this time, the news browsing application establishes a session for receiving an event, generates a filter object, and sets filter values as shown in FIGS. 25, 26, and 27 in this filter object. The news browsing application of the terminal 31 of the news user 1 is, for example, shown in FIGS.
Set the filter as shown in. Similarly, the news browsing application of the terminal 32 of the news user 2 sets a filter as shown in FIGS. 25 and 27, for example.

(2) The news providers 1 to 3
In 43 to 43, a news providing application program is used to input information indicating news to be provided and its unique conditions from application screens as shown in FIGS. 28, 29 and 30, respectively. At this time, the news providing application program used by the terminal 41 of the news provider 1 generates an event as shown in FIG. 31 and transmits the event to the semantic information network 10, for example. Similarly, the news providing application program of the terminal 42 of the news provider 2 is, for example, as shown in FIG.
Is generated and transmitted to the semantic information network 10. The news providing application program of the terminal 43 of the news provider 3 generates an event as shown in FIG. 33, for example, and transmits it to the semantic information network 10.

In the semantic information network 10, the filters set by the terminals 31 and 32 of the news users 1 and 2 are collated with the events transmitted by the terminals 41 to 43 of the news providers. An event that matches the indicated condition is transferred to the news browsing application that has set the filter. Between the event place used by the news providing application and the event place used by the news browsing application, information can be exchanged by the event place federation function. The event is finally transferred to the event place used by the target news browsing application via the event place.

In FIG. 20, news user 1 is
26, and the event (FIG. 32) that matches the filter shown in FIG. 26 is received. Here, the matching between the event and the filter succeeds even if the partial character strings match. The news user 2 receives an event (FIG. 31) that matches the filter shown in FIG. Moreover, the news information transmitted as an event by news application terminal 43 of the news provider 3, which is not received in the news user because no filter matches the distribution condition set.

An example of a news browsing application screen displayed on the terminal 31 of the news user 1 is shown in FIG.

(3) Finally, the news user pays the news provider for the viewed news information. FIG.
In this example, the news user 1 pays the price to the news providers 1 and 2 respectively, and the news user 2 pays the price to the news provider 1. Also, as an example, the news browsing application displays a title or the like included in the received event on a screen as shown in FIG. 34, and when a news user requests browsing, the news content is included in the received event. Payment transfer processing may be performed on the account indicated by the ID of the news provider.

According to the news distribution system of this embodiment, even if the news user and the news provider do not know each other, the news user does not need the presence of the intermediary, and the news user can request the news user from the news provider. You can receive the news that suits you in real time. Therefore, it is possible to improve the real-time property of news distribution as compared with a conventional news distribution system in which an intermediary exists. In addition, the absence of an intermediary can improve the security of confidential information of news users. Also,
No payment of brokerage fees.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 35 is a diagram for explaining a message delivery service provided by a message delivery system according to a second embodiment of the present invention. This message delivery service is realized by a message receiver selecting message information desired to be delivered from message information sent by a message sender and delivering the message information to the message receiver. Further, in the present embodiment, the semantic information network 10 in FIG. 35 is realized using the above-described event place, but the method of realizing the semantic information network 10 is not limited to this.

In the message distribution system of the present embodiment, the terminals 51 and 52 of the message receivers 1 and 2 and the terminals 61 to 63 of the message sender are connected via the semantic information network 10.

The terminals 61 to 63 of the message sender function as transmitting terminals for transmitting the message information or the message identifier to the semantic information network 10 as an event. In addition, the message receiver terminals 51 and 52 function as receiving terminals in which a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition is set in order to selectively receive message information or a message identifier transmitted as an event.

The message senders 1 to 3 and the message receivers 1 and 2 are used by terminals 61 to 6 such as PCs, respectively.
It is assumed that a network OS such as a CORBA-compliant ORB and the above-described event place factory generation mechanism are installed in 3, 51, and 52 and connected to a semantic information network. It is also assumed that an event type as shown in FIG. 36 is registered in the semantic information network 10 as an example.

For the registered event types, “message delivery” is defined as the event type name.
Event properties include "purpose", "age",
It is assumed that "region" is defined. In these event properties, “string type”, “short type”, and “string type” are defined as event property values, respectively. These event properties are for setting conditions of the message information to be delivered. For example, “purpose” is an event property indicating a purpose of delivering a message, and “age” is a message reception purpose. The “region” is an event property used to limit the region where the message recipient lives, which is used when limiting the age of the recipient.

Next, the message delivery system of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIG. In the following description, a case where a blessing message (birthday, wedding) used in daily life is distributed will be described as an example.

(1) First, message recipients 1 and 2
Using the message receiving application program, the message delivery conditions are input from the application screens as shown in FIGS. As an example, it is assumed that the message receiver 1 has set the distribution conditions as shown in FIG. 37 at 8:00 am on September 11, and the message receiver 2 has the distribution conditions as shown at 8:00 am on September 12 as shown in FIG. It is assumed that conditions have been set.

Further, the message receiver sets the time at which the distribution conditions set in the message receiving application program are deleted. As an example, message recipient 1 was set to delete the delivery condition at midnight on September 12, and message recipient 2 was set to delete the delivery condition at midnight on September 13. Shall be.

When the message receiving applications of the terminals 51 and 52 input in this way establish a session for receiving an event, they generate a filter object, and the filter object is added to the filter objects shown in FIGS.
Set the filter value as shown in. Here, the message receiving application of the terminal 51 of the message receiver 1 sets the filter shown in FIG.
The message receiving application of the terminal 52 of the message receiver 2 sets the filter of FIG. 40 at 8:00 am on September 12.

(2) The message senders 1 to 3
In 1 to 63, a message transmission application program is used, and a message to be transmitted and information indicating its unique conditions are input from application screens on terminals as shown in FIGS. 41, 42, and 43, respectively. At this time, the message sending application program used by the message sender 1 generates an event as shown in FIG. 44 at noon on September 11, for example, and transmits it to the semantic information network 10. Similarly, the message sending application program of the message sender 2 generates an event as shown in FIG. 45 at noon on September 12, for example, and transmits it to the semantic information network 10. The message sending application program of the message sender 3 generates an event as shown in FIG. 46 at noon on September 12, for example, and transmits the event to the semantic information network 10.

(3) Next, in the semantic information network 10, the filter set by the message receivers 1 and 2 is compared with the event transmitted by the message senders 1 to 3, and the matching is indicated by the filter value. The event that matches the condition is forwarded to the message receiving application that has set the filter. Since the information place can be exchanged between the event place used by the message sending application and the event place used by the message receiving application by the event place federation function, the above events pass through several event places. The event is finally transferred to the event place used by the target message receiving application.

Since the filter shown in FIG. 39 is set at 8:00 am on September 11, the message recipient 1
The event shown in FIG. 44 transmitted to the semantic information network 10 at noon on March 11 is received. However, since the filter shown in FIG. 39 is deleted at midnight on September 12, the message recipient 1 transmits the event shown in FIGS. 45 and 46 to the semantic information network 10 at noon on September 12. Never receive.

Since the filter shown in FIG. 40 is set at 8:00 am on September 12, the message recipient 2
Receives the event shown in FIG. 45 transmitted to the semantic information network 10 at noon on September 12. However, the event shown in FIG.
Is “birthday” and the “purpose” is set to “wedding” in the filter condition of the filter shown in FIG.
This event is not received by message recipient 2.
The event shown in FIG.
At noon on September 11 transmitted to 0, the event shown in FIG. 44 is not received by the message recipient 2 because the filter shown in FIG. 40 has not been set yet.

Then, the message receiving application that has received the message from the message sender allows the message receiver to refer to the received message. In FIG. 35, message recipient 1 receives a message from message sender 1 and message recipient 2
Indicates a case where a message from the message sender 2 has been received. Message sent by the originator 3 conditions are not received in any message recipient for the filter that matches does not exist.

As described above, the filter once set is automatically deleted at the designated time, so that
Only events transmitted to the semantic information network 10 during a certain period can be received.

In the above description, the message sender inputs the message information to be delivered in the form of text as shown in FIGS. 44 to 46. However, as shown in FIG. The message to be attempted may be specified using a message identifier.
In FIG. 47, the message to be delivered is “MID0
The case where the designation is made using the message identifier “2” is shown.

In this case, after receiving the event from the message sender, the message receiving application converts the message identifier into a message using the conversion table shown in FIG. 48 and displays the message to the message receiver. I do. For example, the message receiving application that has received the event illustrated in FIG. 47 converts the message identifier “MID02” into a message “happy birthday” using this conversion table and displays the message to the message recipient.

As described above, by designating a message to be delivered using a message identifier, it is possible to deliver a fixed message without error, and to prevent delivery of a message containing an inappropriate expression or the like. it can.

As described above, according to the message delivery system of the present embodiment, even if the message receiver and the message sender do not know each other, the message receiver does not need an intermediary, and the message receiver can receive the message. A message that matches the conditions can be received in real time from the sender.

By adding a payment process from a message receiver to a message sender to the message delivery service of this embodiment, it is possible to provide a business of delivering a blessing message or the like.

Further, as another application example of the present invention, by replacing the terminal of the message receiver with a screen or the like of a stadium, a support message or the like to be distributed is received at an appropriate timing in accordance with the progress of the game. It can be used for displaying services. FIG. 49 shows an example of a filter conditioned on the progress of a game set by the message receiving application of the stadium when the service is to be realized. An example is shown in FIG.

As another application example of the present invention, the present invention can be used for a fortune-telling message distribution service and the like. The message receiving application sets the attribute of the individual who receives the fortune-telling message as shown in FIG. 51 in the filter, and the message sending application of the sender of the fortune-telling message transmits an event as shown in FIG.
By doing so, the message recipient can receive a fortune-telling message that matches his or her attributes.

As an example of the operation of the message delivery service of the present embodiment, the message delivery service may be a service provided as an added value to the event place. In such an operation mode, the user who wants to use the message delivery service is higher by the added value for using the message delivery service than the session fee (connection fee) of the normal event place. Charges can be set. With this mode of operation, the end user will be charged higher than usual,
It is possible to receive a message, fortune-telling information, or the like according to the time or situation. In addition, a person who runs an event place can get a charge for using the message delivery service.

[0165]

As described above, the present invention has the following effects. (1) The news / message distribution service can be used without an intermediary. (2) News / message distribution can be performed in real time. (3) The security of privacy / confidential information of news users / message recipients is improved. (4) There is no load bottleneck due to the absence of an intermediary. (5) No brokerage fee is charged.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of an event.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a model of a semantic information network.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the definition of semantic information.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a definition example of an event type.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of an event.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a definition example of a filter.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a configuration of a semantic information network.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation mechanism and a control interface of the semantic information network.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a physical link.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing a filter management method.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing an event routing method.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing a registration status of a filter.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation mechanism and a control interface of the semantic information network.

FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram showing physical links.

FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram showing an event routing method.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram showing a registration state of a filter.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram showing a federation method.

FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram showing a community model.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing a configuration of a news distribution system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

21 is a semantic information network 10 shown in FIG.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing event types registered in the.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing an example of a screen of a news browsing application displayed on terminals 31 and 32 when news users 1 and 2 input desired news distribution conditions.

FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen of a news browsing application displayed on the terminal 31 when the news user 1 inputs desired news distribution conditions.

24 is a diagram showing an example of a screen of a news browsing application displayed on the terminal 32 when the news user 2 inputs desired news distribution conditions. FIG.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing an example of a filter condition set by the news browsing application of the terminals 31 and 32 of the news users 1 and 2;

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating an example of a filter condition set by a news browsing application of the terminal 31 of the news user 1.

FIG. 27 is a diagram showing an example of a filter condition set by a news browsing application of the terminal 32 of the news user 2.

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing an example of a screen of a news providing application displayed on the terminal 41 when a news provider 1 inputs news provided.

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing an example of a screen of a news providing application displayed on the terminal 42 when a news provider 2 inputs news provided.

30 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen of a news providing application displayed on a terminal 43 when a news provider 3 inputs a news to be provided. FIG.

FIG. 31 is a diagram showing an example of an event transmitted to the semantic information network 10 by a news providing application program of the terminal 41.

FIG. 32 is a diagram showing an example of an event transmitted to the semantic information network 10 by a news providing application program of the terminal 42.

FIG. 33 is a diagram showing an example of an event transmitted to the semantic information network 10 by the application program for providing news on the terminal 43.

FIG. 34 is a diagram showing an example when the news browsing application program of the terminal 31 displays news information received from the news providers 1 and 2 on the screen of the terminal 31.

FIG. 35 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a message delivery system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

36 is a semantic information network 10 shown in FIG.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing event types registered in the.

FIG. 37 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen of a message receiving application displayed on the terminal 51 when the message receiver 1 inputs a message distribution condition.

FIG. 38 is a diagram showing an example of a screen of a message receiving application displayed on the terminal 52 when the message receiver 2 inputs a message delivery condition.

FIG. 39 is a diagram showing an example of a filter condition set by the message receiver 1 in the semantic information network in order to accept a message meeting the condition.

FIG. 40 is a diagram showing an example of a filter condition set by the message receiver 2 in the semantic information network in order to accept a message meeting the condition.

FIG. 41 is a diagram showing an example of a message transmission application screen displayed on the terminal 61 when the message sender 1 inputs a message to be transmitted.

FIG. 42 is a diagram showing an example of a screen of a message transmission application on the terminal 62 when a message transmitter 2 inputs a message to be transmitted.

FIG. 43 is a diagram showing an example of a message transmission application screen displayed on the terminal 63 when the message sender 3 inputs a message to be transmitted.

FIG. 44 is a diagram showing an example of an event that the message sender 1 sends to the semantic information network to send a message.

FIG. 45 is a diagram showing an example of an event that the message sender 2 sends to the semantic information network to send a message.

FIG. 46 is a diagram showing an example of an event that the message sender 3 sends to the semantic information network to send a message.

FIG. 47 is a diagram showing an example of an event that a message sender sends to a semantic information network in order to send a message using a message identifier.

FIG. 48 is a diagram showing an example of a conversion table used when converting a message identifier into message information.

FIG. 49 is a diagram illustrating an example of a filter condition set in the semantic information network in the support message delivery service in order for a message recipient to accept a message that meets the condition.

FIG. 50 is a diagram showing an example of an event that a message sender sends to a semantic information network to send a support message in the support message delivery service.

FIG. 51 is a diagram illustrating an example of a filter condition set in the semantic information network in order for the message receiver to accept a message that meets the condition in the fortune-telling message delivery service.

FIG. 52 is a diagram showing an example of an event that a message sender sends to a semantic information network to send a fortune-telling message in the fortune-telling message delivery service.

FIG. 53 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a conventional news distribution system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Semantic information network (SION) 2 Terminal 10 Semantic information network 21 Sending terminal 22 Receiving terminal 31, 32 News user terminal 41-43 News provider terminal 51, 52 Message receiver terminal 61-63 Message distributor Terminal 101, 102 Terminal of news user 200 Server of news distribution agent 301-303 Terminal of news provider 500 Internet SI-SW semantic information switch SI-R semantic information router SI-GW semantic information gateway EPO event place object SLO shared Link Object FA Federation Agent

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (72) Inventor Takanari Hoshiai 2-3-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Within Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Inventor Takamichi Sakai 2-3-3, Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo No. 1 Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Keiichi Koyanagi Inventor 2-3-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Inventor Jun Maeda Kamodanaka, Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture 4-1-1, Fujitsu Limited

Claims (20)

[Claims] 1. A transmitting terminal for transmitting data as an event, and a receiving terminal on which a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition is set in order to selectively receive the data transmitted as an event. Using a semantic information network, a news user selects news information desired to be distributed from news information provided by a news provider and distributes the news information to the news user. A news distribution method, wherein the news user terminal sets a distribution condition, which is a condition of news information desired to be distributed, to the semantic information network as a filter; Terminal transmits the provided news information as an event to the semantic information network. Step and the terminal of the news user that the delivery conditions are set as the filter of the news information who wish to receive the delivery,
Receiving the news information transmitted as an event from the semantic information network. 2. A transmitting terminal for transmitting data as an event, and a receiving terminal on which a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition is set to selectively receive the data transmitted as an event. Using a semantic information network, a news user selects news information desired to be distributed from news information provided by a news provider and distributes the news information to the news user. A news distribution method using a semantic information network, comprising: a step of the news provider terminal transmitting news information to be provided as an event to the semantic information network. 3. A transmitting terminal for transmitting data as an event, and a receiving terminal for setting a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition in order to selectively receive the data transmitted as an event. Using a semantic information network, a news user selects news information desired to be distributed from news information provided by a news provider and distributes the news information to the news user. A terminal of the news user, wherein the terminal of the news user sets a distribution condition, which is a condition of news information desired to be received, as a filter to the semantic information network. Transmits the news information transmitted from the news provider as an event to the semantic information network. And a step of receiving from, news method using the semantic information network. 4. A transmitting terminal for transmitting data as an event, and a receiving terminal for setting a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition for selectively receiving the data transmitted as an event. Using a semantic information network, a news user selects news information desired to be distributed from news information provided by a news provider and distributes the news information to the news user. A news provider terminal for transmitting news information to be provided as an event to the semantic information network, and a distribution condition, which is a condition of news information desired to be distributed, as a filter. The news information set for the network and sent as an event The semantic information and a terminal news user received from the network, the news distribution system using the semantic information network. 5. A system comprising a plurality of terminals to which a filter comprising an event type and an acquisition condition is set for transmitting data as an event and selectively receiving the data transmitted as an event. A transmitting terminal for transmitting data as an event to a semantic information network, wherein the transmitting terminal transmits news information to be provided to the semantic information network as an event. 6. A receiving terminal in which a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition is set for selectively receiving data transmitted as an event from a transmitting terminal via a semantic information network, A distribution condition, which is a condition of news information desired to be distributed, is set as a filter in the semantic information network, and news information transmitted as an event from a news provider is received from the semantic information network. Terminal. 7. A transmitting terminal for transmitting data as an event, and a receiving terminal for setting a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition in order to selectively receive the data transmitted as an event. The message receiver uses the semantic information network to select the message information that the message sender desires to deliver from the message information sent by the message sender and deliver the message information to the message recipient. A message delivery method, wherein the terminal of the message recipient sets a delivery condition, which is a condition of message information desired to be delivered, to the semantic information network as a filter, and the message sender Of the terminals use the semantic information Transmitting the message information transmitted as an event from the semantic information network to a terminal of a message recipient who sets a distribution condition of the message information desired to be received as a filter. And a message delivery method using a semantic information network. 8. A transmitting terminal for transmitting data as an event, and a receiving terminal for setting a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition in order to selectively receive the data transmitted as an event. The message receiver uses the semantic information network to select the message information that the message sender desires to deliver from the message information sent by the message sender and deliver the message information to the message recipient. A message delivery method, wherein the terminal of the message recipient sets a delivery condition, which is a condition of message information desired to be delivered, to the semantic information network as a filter, and the message sender Terminal receives the message identifier corresponding to the message information to be distributed. Transmitting to the semantic information network as an event, the terminal of a message receiver setting a distribution condition of the message information desired to be received as a filter, and transmitting the message identifier transmitted as an event to the semantic information. Receiving the message identifier from the network and converting the received message identifier into message information. 9. A transmitting terminal for transmitting data as an event, and a receiving terminal in which a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition is set in order to selectively receive the data transmitted as an event. The message receiver uses the semantic information network to select the message information that the message sender desires to deliver from the message information sent by the message sender and deliver the message information to the message recipient. A message delivery method using a semantic information network, comprising: a step of the message sender terminal transmitting message information to be delivered as an event to the semantic information network. 10. A transmitting terminal that transmits data as an event, and a receiving terminal in which a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition is set to selectively receive the data transmitted as an event. The message receiver uses the semantic information network to select the message information that the message sender desires to deliver from the message information sent by the message sender and deliver the message information to the message recipient. A message distribution method using a semantic information network, comprising a step of transmitting, as an event, a message identifier corresponding to message information to be distributed to the semantic information network by the message sender terminal. 11. A transmitting terminal for transmitting data as an event, and a receiving terminal for setting a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition in order to selectively receive the data transmitted as an event. The message receiver uses the semantic information network to select the message information that the message sender desires to deliver from the message information sent by the message sender and deliver the message information to the message recipient. Message delivery method, wherein the message recipient's terminal sets a message delivery condition, which is a condition of message information desired to be delivered, to the semantic information network as a filter. Is the message information sent as an event from the message sender The semantic information and a step of receiving from the network, the message delivery method using the semantic information network. 12. A transmitting terminal for transmitting data as an event, and a receiving terminal in which a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition is set to selectively receive the data transmitted as an event. The message receiver uses the semantic information network to select the message information that the message sender desires to deliver from the message information sent by the message sender and deliver the message information to the message recipient. Message delivery method, wherein the message recipient's terminal sets a message delivery condition, which is a condition of message information desired to be delivered, to the semantic information network as a filter. Is the message information sent as an event from the message sender Receiving a response message identifier from the semantic information network, and a step of converting the message identifier received in the message information, the message delivery method using the semantic information network. 13. The terminal of the message receiver is configured to be able to set a time at which a filter to be set is to be deleted, and to delete a filter set to the semantic information network at a set time. The message delivery method using a semantic information network according to any one of claims 7, 8, 11, and 12. 14. A transmitting terminal for transmitting data as an event, and a receiving terminal for setting a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition in order to selectively receive the data transmitted as an event. The message receiver uses the semantic information network to select the message information that the message sender desires to deliver from the message information sent by the message sender and deliver the message information to the message recipient. A message sender terminal for transmitting message information to be delivered as an event to the semantic information network; and a delivery condition, which is a condition of the message information desired to be delivered, as a filter. Configured for the network and sent as events Message delivery system using said message information and a terminal of the message receiver for receiving from the semantic information network, semantic information networks. 15. A transmitting terminal for transmitting data as an event, and a receiving terminal in which a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition is set in order to selectively receive the data transmitted as an event. The message receiver uses the semantic information network to select the message information that the message sender desires to deliver from the message information sent by the message sender and deliver the message information to the message recipient. A message sender terminal that sends a message identifier corresponding to the message information to be delivered to the semantic information network as an event, and a delivery condition that is a condition of the message information desired to be delivered. Set as a filter for the semantic information network And to receive the message identifier transmitted as events from the semantic information network, and a terminal of the message receiver for converting the message identifier received in the message information, the message distribution system using the semantic information network. 16. The terminal of the message receiver is configured to be able to set a time to delete a filter to be set, and to delete a filter set to the semantic information network at a set time. 16. The message delivery system using a semantic information network according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the message delivery system uses a semantic information network. 17. A system comprising: a plurality of terminals in which a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition is set to transmit data as an event and selectively receive the data transmitted as an event. A transmitting terminal for transmitting data as an event to a semantic information network, wherein the transmitting terminal transmits message information to be distributed to the semantic information network as an event. 18. A system comprising: a plurality of terminals having a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition set for transmitting data as an event and selectively receiving the data transmitted as an event. A transmission terminal for transmitting data as an event to a semantic information network, wherein the transmission terminal transmits a message identifier corresponding to message information to be distributed to the semantic information network as an event. 19. A receiving terminal in which a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition is set for selectively receiving data transmitted as an event from the transmitting terminal via a semantic information network, A delivery condition, which is a condition of message information desired to be delivered, is set as a filter for the semantic information network, and message information transmitted as an event from a message sender is received from the semantic information network. Terminal. 20. A receiving terminal in which a filter including an event type and an acquisition condition is set for selectively receiving data transmitted as an event from the transmitting terminal via a semantic information network, A delivery condition, which is a condition of message information desired to be delivered, is set as a filter for the semantic information network, and a message identifier transmitted as an event from a message sender is received from the semantic information network, A receiving terminal for converting the received message identifier into message information;