JP4028429B2 - Computer, event place search method, and computer program - Google Patents

Description

【０１３０】
図２７は、一実施の形態によるコミュニティの自動探索の概要フローを示す図である。
まず、ユーザは、探索元エンティティの表示する探索を行うためのメイン画面上に、探索キーワード（探索情報）を入力し（ステップＳ１００）、探索開始ボタンをクリックする（ステップＳ１１０）。これにより、探索元エンティティは、後述する参加候補コミュニティ探索処理を実施する（ステップＳ１２０）。この参加候補コミュニティ探索処理は、初回の場合、探索を開始した時点で自身が参加しているコミュニティの全てを対象とし、参加候補最大数、もしくは、自動探索タイムアウト値を満たすまで実施される。
【０１３１】
このコミュニティ探索処理の結果、参加候補コミュニティがあった場合（ステップＳ１３０ｙｅｓ）、探索元エンティティは、コントロールパネルにより参加候補のコミュニティと、その評価とを表示する（ステップＳ１４０）。なお、SIONetにおけるイベントプレース参加最大数の設定値により、ユーザが選択可能なコミュニティの参加数は制限されて表示される。
一方、コミュニティ探索処理の結果、参加候補がなかった場合（ステップＳ１３０ｎｏ）、探索の結果参加候補が発見できなかった旨をエンティティのダイアログに表示する（ステップＳ１５０）。
【０１３２】
図２８は、一実施の形態による参加候補コミュニティ探索処理の概要フローを示す図である。
まず、探索元エンティティは、現在自身が属しているコミュニティを通過履歴に追加する（ステップＳ２００）。このとき、引き継がれた通過履歴がある場合には、その履歴に現在のコミュニティを追加するが、引き継がれた通過履歴がない場合には、通過履歴を新規に追加する。
続いて、探索元エンティティは、同好（同じあるいは類似の属性を持つエンティティ）の探索処理を実行する（ステップＳ２１０）。同好の探索は、入力された探索キーワードと、エンティティが公開しているコミュニティの説明との文字列を比較することにより行う。これは、同好最大数、もしくは、オペレーション複数応答タイムアウト値を満たすまで実施される。
【０１３３】
同好が発見できた場合（ステップＳ２２０ｙｅｓ）、探索元エンティティは、発見した同好数分だけコミュニティ紹介要求処理を実施する（ステップＳ２３０）。これは、発見した同好に対して、コミュニティを紹介してもらうための処理であり、これにより、同好が参加しているコミュニティの探索キーワードに対する評価（コミュニティ評価）を取得する。そして、このコミュニティ評価値を基に参加候補となるコミュニティを判断してこの処理の呼び出し元に対して通知することにより、次探索候補コミュニティがあるか否かが判断される（ステップＳ２４０）。なお、この次探索候補のコミュニティは、コミュニティ評価がコミュニティ評価閾値を超えるコミュニティ全てを対象とする。あるいは、全てがコミュニティ評価閾値を超えなかった場合は、そのうち、コミュニティ評価が最大のものを対象とする。ただし、取得した全ての評価が「０」の場合、次探索候補のコミュニティはなしとなる。
次探索候補コミュニティがある場合、続いて探索元エンティティは、参加候補最大数に達した、もしくは、自動探索タイマー値を満たしたかにより、処理を継続か否かを判断する（ステップＳ２５０）。処理を継続する場合には、次探索候補数分だけ次探索候補のコミュニティに参加する（ステップＳ２６０）。そして、この参加したコミュニティに対して「参加候補コミュニティ探索処理」を次探索候補数分だけ実施する（ステップＳ２７０）。そして、探索元エンティティは、現在属しているコミュニティが、探索の為に参加していたコミュニティである場合には、そのコミュニティから退去する（ステップＳ２８０）。
なお、ステップＳ２２０において、同好を発見できない場合、ステップＳ２４０において、自探索候補コミュニティがない場合、あるいは、ステップＳ２５０において、処理を継続しない場合には、ステップＳ２８０のコミュニティからの退去を行う。
【０１３４】
図２９〜図３３は、一実施の形態によるコミュニティ自動探索の機能部間詳細シーケンス図である。
図２９において、ユーザは、エンティティのコントロールパネルに表示されている同好探索のためのアイコンをダブルクリックする（ステップＳ３００）。これにより、イベント解析部は同好検索のための画面表示イベントを受信し（ステップＳ３０１）、ユーザインタフェース部に探索のための画面表示を指示する（ステップＳ３０２）。ユーザインタフェース部は、探索のための画面表示に対する受付応答を返送し（ステップＳ３０３）、メイン画面を表示する。
【０１３５】
続いてユーザは、メイン画面に探索情報（探索キーワード）を設定し、ＳＴＡＲＴ（探索開始）ボタンをクリックして探索開始を要求する（ステップＳ３０４）。すると、ユーザインタフェース部は、セッション管理部から自身の属するイベントプレースのＥＰ情報のリストを取得する（ステップＳ３０５、ステップＳ３０６）。続いて、ユーザインタフェース部は、セッション管理部へ探索開始を通知する（ステップＳ３０７）。セッション管理部は、参加候補ＥＰリストを初期化するとともに、受け付け応答を返送する（ステップＳ３０８）。ユーザインタフェース部は、受付応答を受信すると、探索時間の測定を開始し、自身の属するＥＰ数分のスレッドを起動して、該イベントプレースにおける芋づる探索処理を実行する（ステップＳ３０９）。
【０１３６】
芋づる探索処理において、ユーザインタフェース部は、実行制御部を起動し、探索元ＥＰ−ＩＤ及び探索キーワードを受け渡す（ステップＳ３１０）。これにより、実行制御部は、同好探索処理を実行する（ステップＳ３１１）。
【０１３７】
図３０に示す同好探索処理において、実行制御部は、同好探索部へ探索元ＥＰ−ＩＤ及び探索キーワードを受け渡し、同好探索を要求する（ステップＳ３２０）。同好探索部は、SIONetインタフェース部へ探索元ＥＰ−ＩＤ及び探索キーワードを受け渡して同好探索を指示すると（ステップＳ３２１）、探索の結果として同好のエンティティのグローバルエンティティ名（Global Entity Name）のリストが返送される（ステップＳ３２２）。実行制御部は、同好探索部からグローバルエンティティ名のリストを受信し（ステップＳ３２３）、このリストがＮｕｌｌ、すなわち、同好が見つからなかった場合には、後述する探索結果表示処理を行う（ステップＳ３２４）。一方、グローバルエンティティ名のリストがＮｕｌｌではない、すなわち、同好のエンティティが見つかった場合には、以下に示すコミュニティ紹介要求処理を実行する（ステップＳ３２５）。
【０１３８】
図３１に示すコミュニティ紹介要求処理において、実行制御部は、コミュニティ評価部へ探索元ＥＰ−ＩＤ、紹介要求先グローバルエンティティ名のリスト及び探索キーワードを受け渡し、コミュニティ紹介を要求する（ステップＳ３３０）。コミュニティ評価部は、SIONetインタフェース部へ探索元ＥＰ−ＩＤ、紹介要求先グローバルエンティティ名のリスト及び探索キーワードを受け渡し、コミュニティ紹介要求指示を行う（ステップＳ３３１）、同好のWell Known（周知）ポイント及びコミュニティ評価点の組のリストが返送される（ステップＳ３３２）。コミュニティ評価部は、セッション管理部へ紹介元グローバルエンティティ名と、探索キーワードと、参加候補Well Knownポイント及びコミュニティ評価点の組のリストと、通過履歴とを受け渡し、参加候補の登録を行う（ステップＳ３３３）。セッション管理部が参加候補の登録を行い、コミュニティ評価部が受け付け応答を受信すると（ステップＳ３３４）、ユーザインタフェース部へ芋づる探索継続可否判定を要求する（ステップＳ３３５）。ユーザインタフェース部は、セッション管理部から参加候補コミュニティ数を取得する（ステップＳ３３６、ステップＳ３３７）。そして、（参加候補コミュニティ総数＜閾値）であり、かつ、（探索経過時間＜閾値）である場合には「true（処理を継続する）」、（参加候補コミュニティ総数≧閾値）、あるいは、（探索経過時間≧閾値）である場合には「false（処理を継続しない）」の判定結果をコミュニティ評価部へ返送する（ステップＳ３３８）。コミュニティ評価部は、「true（処理を継続する）」を受信した場合に、次の探索先のWell Knownポイント及びコミュニティ評価点の組のリストを実行制御部へ送信する（ステップＳ３３９）。なお、次に探索を行うコミュニティとは、評価が閾値を超えているもの全てか、あるいは閾値を超えるものがない場合は評価点が最大のものである。また、直前の芋づる探索継続可否判定が「false（処理を継続しない）」であった場合には、「ｎｕｌｌ」を返送する。
【０１３９】
実行制御部は、コミュニティ評価部から次の探索先のWell Knownポイント及びコミュニティ評価点の組のリストを受信すると、芋づるの深さが１以外の場合、すなわち、探索のための参加であった場合には、SIONetインタフェース部へ探索元ＥＰ−ＩＤを受け渡し、退去指示を送信する（ステップＳ３４０）。SIONetインタフェース部は、退去指示を受けると受付応答を返送し、コミュニティからの退去を行う（ステップＳ３４１）。
【０１４０】
そして、図３２において、コミュニティ制御部から受信した次の探索先のWell Knownポイント及びコミュニティ評価点の組のリストが「ｎｕｌｌ」であった場合には、後述する探索結果表示処理を行う（ステップＳ３５０）。また、「ｎｕｌｌ」以外であった場合には、Well Knownポイント数分のスレッドを起動し、紹介されたコミュニティへ参加するための移動処理を実行する（ステップＳ３５１）。
【０１４１】
移動処理において、実行制御部は、SIONetインタフェース部へWell Knownポイントを受け渡し、参加指示を行う（ステップＳ３６０）。SIONetインタフェース部がコミュニティへの参加を行い、実行制御部がＥＰ−ＩＤを受信すると、再び同好探索処理が行われる（ステップＳ３６１、ステップＳ３６２）。
【０１４２】
図３３の探索処理表示処理において、ユーザインタフェース部は、一定時間待機を行っている（ステップＳ３７０）。この間、実行制御部では、起動したスレッドにおける探索を終了する。そして、待機時間が満了すると、参加候補が存在する場合、ユーザインタフェース部は、コントロールパネルへ探索結果を通知し（ステップＳ３７１）、ユーザは、コントロールパネルが表示する探索結果を確認する（ステップＳ３７２）。一方、参加候補が存在しない場合、ユーザインタフェース部は、通知ダイアログ表示の指示を受け、コミュニティ未発見を通知するための画面を表示する（ステップＳ３７５）。ユーザは、通知ダイアログにより、参加候補が存在しない旨を認識すると、ＯＫボタンをクリックする（ステップＳ３７６）。
【０１４３】
図３４は、一実施の形態によるメイン画面を示す図である。
図３４に示す探索のためのメイン画面には、探索キーワードを入力する［探索情報］フィールド▲１▼と、現在広告を行っているコミュニティの情報を表示する［ナビゲート情報］リストボックス▲２▼と、［探索情報］フィールド▲１▼に入力された探索キーワードによる探索を開始するための［探索開始］ボタン▲３▼が備えられる。そして、［探索情報］フィールド▲１▼に探索キーワードを入力し、［探索開始］ボタン▲３▼を押下することにより、探索開始時点で、自身が参加しているコミュニティの全てを探索元として検索を開始する。なお、［ナビゲート情報］リストボックス▲２▼には、常に最新の状態が表示される。
【０１４４】
図３５は、一実施の形態によるコミュニティ未発見時の探索結果表示画面を示す図である。
図３３のステップＳ３７５において参加候補が存在しない場合に、ユーザインタフェース部は、図３５に示す探索結果表示画面を表示する。ユーザは、通知ダイアログにより、コミュニティが発見できなかった旨を認識すると、ＯＫボタン▲１▼をクリックし、この画面を閉じる。
【０１４５】
以上、この発明の実施形態を図面を参照して詳述してきたが、具体的な構成はこの実施形態に限られるものではなく、この発明の要旨を逸脱しない範囲の設計変更等も含まれる。
【０１４６】
【発明の効果】
以上説明したように、イベントプレース（コミュニティ）内の任意のエンティティが退去、参加等しても、同時に複数のイベントプレースに参加しているエンティティを介してイベントプレースを探索するための機能が阻害されることのないエンティティ装置、コミュニティ探索方法、及び、コンピュータプログラムを提供することができる。さらに、エンティティが属するイベントプレースにおいて自身を広告する価値があるか否かを学習することにより、適切なコミュニティの探索を自動的に行うことが可能なため、探索の待ち時間を少なくすることができ、さらには、リソースを有効に使用できる、また、探索ノウハウのないコミュニティ探索者（探索エンティティ）が適切なコミュニティを探索できる、などの利点及び効果がある。
【図面の簡単な説明】
【図１】 本発明の一実施形態による芋づる式探索の自動化制御を説明するための図である。
【図２】 本発明の前提技術であるSIONet（意味情報ネットワーク）におけるエンティティを説明するための図である。
【図３】 SIONetにおけるエンティティの状態遷移を説明するための図である。
【図４】 SIONetにおけるエンティティの内部構成を示すブロック図である。
【図５】 SIONetにおけるイベントプレースの生成を説明するための図である。
【図６】 SIONetにおけるエンティティがイベントプレースへ参加する動作を説明するための図である。
【図７】 SIONetにおける意味情報スイッチSI-SWとセッションを説明するための図である。
【図８】 SIONetにおけるイベントの構成を示す図である。
【図９】 SIONetにおける意味情報体系を説明するための図である。
【図１０】 SIONetにおいて、あるイベントプレースに参加しているエンティティが、さらに他のイベントプレースに参加する動作を説明するための図である。
【図１１】 SIONetにおけるサービスエンティティのプラグインを説明するための図である。
【図１２】 SIONetにおけるリファレンスモデルを説明するための図である。
【図１３】 SIONetにおけるシェアードリンクを説明するための図である。
【図１４】 SIONetにおけるシェアードリンクを説明するための図である。
【図１５】 SIONetにおけるシェアードリンクを説明するための図である。
【図１６】 SIONetにおけるイベントパスを説明するための図である。
【図１７】 SIONetにおけるシェアードリンクの再確立を説明するための図である。
【図１８】 SIONetにおけるホップ属性を説明するための図である。
【図１９】 SIONetにおけるイベントプレース及びエンティティの増減設を説明するための図である。
【図２０】 SIONetにおけるイベントプレース及びエンティティの増減設を説明するための図である。
【図２１】 SIONetにおけるエンティティのアドバタイズメントを説明するための図である。
【図２２】 SIONetにおけるエンティティのアドバタイズメントを説明するための図である。
【図２３】 P2Pモデルのディメンションを示す図である。
【図２４】 SIONetの概念を説明する図である。
【図２５】 本発明の一実施形態によるエンティティの構成図である。
【図２６】 同実施形態によるコミュニティ探索の動作例を示す図である。
【図２７】 同実施形態によるコミュニティの自動探索の概要フローを示す図である。
【図２８】 同実施形態による参加候補コミュニティ探索処理の概要フローを示す図である。
【図２９】 同実施形態によるコミュニティ自動探索の機能部間詳細シーケンス図である。
【図３０】 同実施形態によるコミュニティ自動探索の機能部間詳細シーケンス図である。
【図３１】 同実施形態によるコミュニティ自動探索の機能部間詳細シーケンス図である。
【図３２】 同実施形態によるコミュニティ自動探索の機能部間詳細シーケンス図である。
【図３３】 同実施形態によるコミュニティ自動探索の機能部間詳細シーケンス図である。
【図３４】 同実施形態によるメイン画面を示す図である。
【図３５】 同実施形態によるコミュニティ未発見時の探索結果表示画面を示す図である。[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a community (Event place) Entities that make up Computer used as Automatically controls the expression search based on entities Event place The present invention relates to a search method and a program. The present invention also relates to a community formation technique. In particular, the present invention relates to a field of searching for an inter-community network in which a plurality of communities exist and a user can transition between the plurality of communities by joining and leaving the community.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In recent years, a new concept of “brokerless search model” has been devised in the networking industry. This brokerless search model is equivalent to P2P (Peer-to-Peer) that has gained worldwide attention, such as Gnutella, which was announced in March 2000. JXTA, announced in April 2001, also corresponds to P2P, a brokerless search model. P2P is an innovative technology since the WWW and is called the third generation. In recent years, research and development of brokerless transmission models that apply the P2P concept to the transmission layer and brokerless policy models that apply the P2P concept to the policy layer have become active. The dimensions of the brokerless (distribution) model are shown in FIG. One of these brokerless search models is SIONet (Semantic Information-Oriented Network).
[0003]
SIONet is a meta network that delivers an event composed of data and semantic information of the data based on semantic information (metadata). As shown in FIG. 24, the event receiver registers semantic information indicating the condition of the event to be received in advance in SIONet. When an event is transmitted from the event sender to the SIONet, the SIONet collates the semantic information of the event with the registered semantic information, and transmits the event to the event receiver based on the collation result. In this way, sending an event to SIONet is called “stimulation”, and the registered semantic information matches the semantic information of the event, and notifying the event recipient who registered the semantic information of the event. It is called “ignition”.
[0004]
As a result, it is possible to dynamically search and discover a specific entity from among an unspecified number of entities that are super-distributed on the network. That is, SIONet is a network that delivers events based on semantic information (sending to whom) instead of the destination address (sending to whom) used in the conventional network.
[0005]
SIONet is an autonomous distributed cooperative network (autonomous distributed computer) in which all entities including the components of SIONet perform autonomous distributed cooperation to self-organize the network. Network components of SIONet include "Semantic Information Switch (SI-SW)", "Semantic Information Router (SI-R)", "Semantic Information Gateway (SI-GW)", "Event Place", "Session", etc. These can be self-organized as needed to build a secure and scalable P2P network with a bottom-up approach.
[0006]
The basic concept and principle of SIONet is simple and unified. Repeating the simple operation of “registering a filter by an entity and dispatching an event”, that is, “entity“ stimulation ”and“ ignition ”“ chain reaction ”between the network components of SIONet. The thing that controls the behavior of this chain reaction is the semantic information registered in the SIONet by the above-mentioned event receiver, and this is called the “filter”. The method of chain reaction of entities can be dynamically controlled by the filter value registered in the filter. Another basic concept in SIONet is event place. An event place is an entity group connected to each other by a shared link, thereby limiting the scope of a chain reaction.
Details of SIONet are described in Non-Patent Documents 1 and 2. The applicant of the present invention has previously filed an application relating to SIONet according to Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-394980.
[0007]
[Non-Patent Document 1]
Takanari Hoshiai, Keiichi Koyanagi, Birge Sukubatar, Kei Kubota, Hiroshi Shibata, Takamichi Sakai, "Semantic Information Network Architecture", IEICE Transactions B, Vol. J84-B, No. 3, pp. 4, 11- 4,2,4 (2000.7 reception, 2001-3 publication)
[Non-Patent Document 2]
Takanari Hoshiai, Hiroshi Shibata, Takamichi Sakai, Keiichi Koyanagi: "Semantic Information Network Architecture: SION Architecture", NTT R & D, Vol.50, No.3, pp.157-164 (Received 2000.12, published in 2001.3)
[0008]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
SIONet advocates the concept of an event place. An event place is a spillover range of an event or an event path, in other words, a group of entities linked by a shared link. Each entity establishes a connection by connecting the semantic information switches included in each entity through a session or a shared link. This semantic information switch is included in each entity in the event place. There are as many as there are. For example, when an entity participates in event place A and event place B at the same time, the entity includes two semantic information switches. One of the semantic information switches establishes a connection only to the semantic information switch for the event place A of the entity participating in the event place A, and the other semantic information switch is the event place B of the entity participating in the event place B. Establish a connection only to the semantic information switch. In this way, since the semantic information switch included in the entity is different for each event place, even the semantic information switch included in the same entity establishes a connection with the semantic information switch that can participate in the event place desired by the entity owner. Must.
[0009]
However, if an entity continues to belong to an event place where desired information cannot be obtained, resources such as useless computers are consumed, and the network becomes inefficient. Therefore, it has been desired to automatically lead the entity to the optimal event place.
[0010]
The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an entity that can search an entity belonging to a plurality of communities (event places) according to an expression and guide the entity to the optimum community. Computer used as , Event place An object is to provide a search method and a computer program.
[0011]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The present invention has been made to achieve the above-mentioned object, and the invention according to claim 1 is a plurality of inventions. Event place Entities belonging to I Through Event place Appropriate while transitioning between Event place Entity to search for As a computer The user interface means for providing an input / output interface to the user, receiving search information from the user, and displaying the search result, and the current user belongs Event place The user interface means matches or is similar to the search information received Event place Information Hold publicly Like search instructions for searching for like entities and detected like entities Showing information returned from a computer acting as other Event place Move to within a given time or destination Event place Execution control means that performs recursively until the number reaches a predetermined number, and receives an instruction of a like search from the execution control means, and currently belongs to Event place A favorite search means for searching for a favorite entity in the list, and a favorite entity detected by the favorite search means Showing information returned from a computer acting as other Event place Evaluate this other Event place Other destination Event place Select and notify the execution control means Event place Evaluation means and own Event place To other to which he belongs at the same time Event place Information By sending Advertise and the one to which you belong Event place An advertisement control means for canceling the advertisement based on the evaluation of Computer It is.
[0012]
The invention described in claim 2 is described in claim 1. Computer And the other execution control means has moved. Event place Information By sending Advertisement It is carried out, Enthusiastic entity As a computer To this other Event place Feedback control means for notifying the user satisfaction level in the advertisement, wherein the advertising means Event place Other entities moved to As a computer Based on user satisfaction received from Event place It is characterized by performing evaluation.
[0013]
Invention of Claim 3 is described in Claim 1 or Claim 2. Computer A semantic information network access means for providing access to the semantic information network, and other entities participating in the semantic information network. As a computer Managing sessions with and currently advertising Event place The session management means for holding and providing the latest information related to the session including at least the navigation information that is the information of the information, and the user interface means receives an event from the semantic information network. And event analysis means for dispatching the event.
[0014]
The invention according to claim 4 is the invention according to any one of claims 1 to 3. Computer And do advertising Event place Joined in response to user operations Event place Or, the execution control means has moved. Event place Any of Event place It is characterized by being.
[0015]
The invention according to claim 5 includes a plurality of Event place Entities belonging to I Through Event place Appropriate while transitioning between Event place Entity to search for As a computer Used for Event place A search method, In the computer functioning as the entity, user interface means includes: Receive search information from user After , Execution control means Currently belongs to Event place Within the search information that matches or resembles the input search information Event place Information Hold publicly Enthusiastic entity The search Shi , Event place evaluation means Favored entity detected Showing information returned from a computer acting as other Event place Evaluation Shi , The execution control means is Others based on the above assessment Event place Other destination Event place Choice And Other selected Event place Move to Processing Within a given time or destination Event place Do it recursively until a certain number is reached, The user interface means comprises: While displaying search results, Ad control means Belongs to Event place To other to which he belongs at the same time Event place Information By sending Advertising Together , The one to which it belongs Event place The advertisement is canceled based on the evaluation of Event place This is a search method.
[0016]
The invention according to claim 6 includes a plurality of Event place Entities belonging to I Through Event place Appropriate while transitioning between Event place Entity to search for Used as a computer A computer program, an input step for receiving search information input from a user, and a current program Event place Within the search information that matches or resembles the input search information Event place Information Hold publicly Search for like entities and find like entities found Showing information returned from a computer acting as other Event place And other based on that rating Event place Other destination Event place Selected and selected Event place Move to within a given time or destination Event place Recursively until the number reaches a predetermined number, displaying the search results, Event place To other to which he belongs at the same time Event place Information By sending A step of performing an advertisement, Event place A computer program that causes a computer to execute the step of canceling the advertisement based on the evaluation.
In this specification, the entity device is a general term for all computers such as a personal computer, a workstation, an information portable terminal, a mobile phone, and a wearable computer.
[0017]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[Details of SIONet]
<Definition of SIONet entity>
Here, all computers such as personal computers, workstations, portable information terminals, mobile phones, and wearable computers are collectively referred to as hosts. Furthermore, a host that implements SIONet software is called a “SIONet entity” or simply an “entity”. As shown in FIG. 2A, an entity (entity device) is a virtualized host in which SIONet software is implemented as a unit of autonomous distributed cooperation in SIONet. SIONet software provides a mechanism for individual entities to perform autonomous distributed cooperation. With this SIONet software, each host can become an autonomous distributed computer.
[0018]
Entities are mainly classified into the following three types as shown in FIG.
・ Applications that act as services (service entity: SE, service entity part) are included inside the entity.
· Modules that act as network components (network entity: NE) are included inside the entity
・ Including both SE and NE in the entity
[0019]
<Entity structure and state transition>
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating state transition of an entity. As shown in this figure, there are three states of an entity, “Non-Existent”, “Suspend”, and “Active”.
The “Non-Existent” state represents the entity state when the SIONet software is installed on the host.
By executing (launching) the SIONet software, transition from the “Non-Existent” state to the “Suspend” state. At this time, internal modules such as an entity control unit, a control panel, a network entity factory (NE factory), and a network entity (NE) are generated in the entity as shown in FIG. Below, each role is demonstrated easily.
[0020]
The entity control unit is an entity entity, and accepts various requests (session establishment request, shared link establishment request, etc., which will be described later) from other entities and the control panel. Note that a request for establishing a session, a request for establishing a shared link, etc. cannot be made from another entity to an entity in the “suspend” state.
[0021]
The control panel provides a GUI (Graphical User Interface) to owners of entities such as people. For example, the control panel prompts the owner of the entity to input the entity name, and the entity control unit assigns the entity name to the entity based on the input entity name. In the example of FIG. 4, the entity name is “entity 2”. This entity name may be referred to as a “local entity name”, particularly distinguished from a “global entity name” described later. The local entity name can be arbitrarily set by the owner of the entity.
[0022]
The NE (network entity) factory has a function of dynamically generating an NE.
NE (Network Entity) means SI-R (Semantic Information Router), SI-GW (Semantic Information Gateway), alive entity, fault handling entity, statistics collection entity, etc. It is a general term for modules that behave in order to achieve this.
[0023]
The SE (service entity) is an application embedded as an SE in an entity using a plug-in mechanism provided by the entity, and is a virtualized P2P application operating on SIONet. An application can be embedded in an entity as an SE using a plug-in mechanism provided by the entity. Also, the SE can establish an arbitrary number of sessions with the SI-SW. The SE can send and receive events only through a session. SE is not involved in SIONet network construction and operation. A plug-in mechanism for incorporating SE into an entity will be described later.
[0024]
The entity (entity 2) in the “suspend” state in FIG. 3 generates an event place by itself as shown in FIG. 5, for example, or joins (joins) an existing event place as shown in FIG. When the entity (entity 2) belongs to an arbitrary event place and becomes a member of an entity group, the entity (entity 2) transitions from the “suspend” state to the “active” state. Only an entity in the “active” state advertises its existence (public, details will be described later), and can accept a session establishment request or a shared link establishment request from another entity.
[0025]
Here, after the software is installed in the host and the entity including the NE, the NE factory, the entity control unit, the control panel, and the like is generated, the operation until the entity enters the “active” state will be described. Assume that an entity receives an instruction to create an event place or participate in another event place via the control panel from the owner of the entity. The entity control unit of the entity requests the NE factory of the entity to generate SI-SW (Semantic Information Switch). When the NE factory generates SI-SW, the entity control unit establishes a session between the generated SI-SW and an internal module such as NE. This makes it possible to accept advertisements, session establishment requests from other entities, shared link establishment requests, and the like.
[0026]
Here, the role of SI-SW and session will be described with reference to FIG.
A session is a connection between SI-SW and SE, and SE can send and receive events only through the session. There are three types of sessions: event transmission sessions, reception sessions, and transmission / reception sessions.
SI-SW provides a switching mechanism that switches events based on semantic information. The SI-SW accommodates NEs and internal entities such as SEs and NEs incorporated in the entities by a plug-in mechanism through a session in a star shape. In the following, SE will be described as an example, but the same applies to other internal entities included in an entity such as NE.
[0027]
Here, the configuration of the event will be described. As shown in an example in FIG. 8, the event includes a control information part, a semantic information part, and a data part. Transmission data is stored in the data portion. Various data and programs such as text data, binary data, reference, proxy, and agent can be stored as transmission data.
[0028]
The semantic information portion stores semantic information (vocabulary and its value) of transmission data and a vocabulary concept (event type) of semantic information. Here, the semantic information is metadata describing the characteristics of transmission data and is an instance of an event type. The event type is a semantic information template. You can define inheritance relationships between event types. FIG. 9 shows an example of the semantic information system. In this figure, the meaning information “title; yesterday”, “price; $ 30”, “artist name; beatles” belongs to the event type “popular” and also belongs to the event type “music”. Yes. In addition, the meaning information “Title; Kiyoshi no Koto”, “Price; $ 20”, “Situation; Christmas” belongs to the event type “BGM”, and also belongs to the event type “Music”. .
[0029]
As a description language of the semantic information system, there is XML (Extensible Markup Language). Note that some event type names (all names starting with SIONet) are reserved for network entities.
The event control information part shown in FIG. 8 is a control field used for SIONet execution control, and only this is not open to the SE who is the user of SIONet. The control information section includes matched filter identifiers, matched filter verification scores, synchronous statistical information collection flags, TTL (Time To Live) values within event places, between event places, within event places, and between event places. Control information such as the number of hops and hop attributes is set.
[0030]
In the entity configuration as shown in FIG. 7, the function of the SE will be described. The SE registers event acquisition conditions in the SI-SW via the reception session. This is called a “filter”. In the filter, set the vocabulary concept (event type) of the event you want to acquire, and the matching condition with the semantic information (for example, the vocabulary “Price” is in the range of “$ 20 to $ 40”) . Note that collation conditions such as “complete match” with all vocabularies defined in the event type, “partial match” with some vocabularies, and “weighted match” can be selected in units of filters.
[0031]
The SE can register a plurality of filters from one reception session, but the filters registered through the same session have an “or” relationship. That is, for one event, one receiving session is fired at most once. If a wildcard is specified for the event type of the event to be acquired, all event types are targeted for acquisition. Further, when 1 (logical value is true) is set as the matching condition with the semantic information, it means that the matching condition with the semantic information is satisfied unconditionally.
[0032]
In addition, the SE transmits an event to the SI-SW via a transmission session. At this time, the SI-SW collates the semantic information part of the event with the filter. Specifically, first, it is checked whether or not the event type is desired to be received. If the event type is satisfied, the semantic information and the matching condition are checked. As a result of the collation, when the semantic information satisfies the collation condition, the entity that registered the matched filter is activated and the event is notified.
In SIONet, event transmission is referred to as “stimulation”, that the filter matches the event as “reaction”, and that the entity that registered the matched filter is activated to notify the event is referred to as “ignition”.
[0033]
<Entity name assignment method>
As shown in FIG. 5, the case where the entity 2 generates an event place named “event place A” will be described. The owner of the entity 2 inputs an event place name to the entity 2 through a control panel or the like. Here, the input event place name is “event place A”. Then, the entity control unit requests the NE factory to generate SI-SW, and establishes a session between the generated SI-SW and an internal module such as NE. Further, the entity control unit stores the name of the generated SI-SW as “event place name + local entity name”, that is, “event place A + entity 2”. This name is called “global entity name”. Creation of this global entity name corresponds to generation of an event place.
[0034]
That is, in SIONet, some management entity is not necessarily generated by generating an event place. That is, in SIONet, member management of entities belonging to an event place is realized by a shared link between entities described later, and therefore there is no centralized management unit itself that performs member management. For this reason, even if the entity that generated the event place leaves the event place, the entity remaining in the event place autonomously self-organizes, whereby the operation of the event place is continued. In other words, the removal of the last entity from the event place corresponds to the disappearance of the event place.
[0035]
This global entity name is used when a shared link or session is established. An operation in which the entity 2 as shown in FIG. 5 further generates an event place B and establishes a shared link from the entity 1 will be described with reference to FIG.
[0036]
First, an operation in which the entity 2 already participating in the event place A generates the event place B will be described. The entity control unit of entity 2 causes the NE factory to generate a new SI-SW, as described above. The entity control unit assigns “event place B + entity 2” as the global entity name to the generated new SI-SW. Thereby, the event place B is generated. At this time, the entity 2 has two global entity names (SI-SW names) “event place A + entity 2” and “event place B + entity 2”.
[0037]
Next, an operation in which the entity 1 joins (joins) the event place A will be described. As described above, the entity 2 participating in the event place A and the event place B is in the “active” state. An entity in the “active” state can advertise (publish) its existence to other entities, in which case the global entity name is published.
[0038]
When entity 1 discovers entity 2 and makes a join request to entity 2, entity 1 indicates that the global entity name of entity 2 that is the join destination entity is “event place A + entity 2”. Entity 2 is notified.
[0039]
In this way, the global entity name can uniquely identify the SI-SW that establishes the shared link, and thus can participate in the event place A. In this way, the SI-SW, which is the shared link or session establishment destination, is virtualized as a global entity name, so that the entity owner or the like is not directly aware of the SI-SW.
[0040]
<SE plug-in method>
The operation of incorporating SE into the entity shown in FIG. 11 will be described below.
(1) The entity owner instructs an application plug-in to the control panel. At this time, the executable file name of the application to be plugged in is given as a parameter.
(2) The control panel notifies the entity control unit that the plug-in instruction has been received and the execution file name of the plug-in application.
[0041]
(3) The entity control unit stores an execution file name to be plugged in, starts an application using the given execution file name, and establishes a session between the SI-SW and the started application.
That is, the plug-in in SIONet is nothing but to establish a session between the application and SI-SW. In SIONet, all operation entities such as SE and NE cooperate through a session. Therefore, plug-in / plug-out (detachment) can be easily realized, and the plug-in / plug-out does not affect other operation entities (super loose coupling). By extending this concept, SE sharing between entities as described later can be realized.
[0042]
<PREFERENCE architecture>
SIONet adopts the concept of a reference model as shown in FIG. The PREFERENCE architecture shown in FIG. 12 is an architecture for building a listening society (a listening-oriented cyber society) in which semantic information is registered in a filter and distribution conditions (matching conditions) are set in an event semantic information section. Provides total solutions for less-less distribution model, broker-less search model, and broker-less policy model. Specifically, it consists of a stream interface, SIONet, COMNet, and the like.
SIONet is an event transmission layer and provides a network interface to higher layers. The middleware layer is a community (community network: COMNet) and corresponds to the intelligence layer of SIONet. In this layer, information localization, authentication, security, information right guarantee, policy control, and the like are performed. The highest layer is the application layer. SE is implemented in this application layer. Examples of the SE include a personal TV station and a smart messenger for a message exchange service.
[0043]
In this way, SIONet provides a common P2P network infrastructure and a plug-in mechanism for all P2P services (SEs provide services) such as distributed computing, information exchange, collaboration, and message delivery. To support efficient application development.
[0044]
<Role of entity in SIONet>
SIONet is a form of constructing a volunteer network by helping each other's entities to help each other, and each network is self-organizing through autonomous distributed cooperation. For example, in the configuration of FIG. 6, an operation in which the entity 2 participates in the event place generated by the entity 1 and then the entity 1 leaves the event place will be described.
[0045]
In advance, the entity 1 generates an event place and participates in the event place. Here, when entity 2 makes a join request to event place for entity 1, as shown in FIG. 13, SI-SW is generated for entity 2, and SI-SW of entity 1 and entity 2 is further generated. A shared link is established between them and an entity group is formed.
In this way, after the shared link is established between the SI-SWs of the entity 1 and the entity 2 and the entity 2 participates in the event place, the entity 1 that is the creator of the event place leaves the event place. Then, the shared link between SI and SW is released, and thereafter, the event place construction / operation is continued only by entity 2. Thus, since each entity self-organizes, even if an entity leaves, disappears, etc., another entity performs the function of the entity.
[0046]
In SIONet, various forms of P2P networks can be constructed by arranging and combining entities according to the purpose. It is also possible to seamlessly link different forms of P2P networks. This is achieved by realizing:
(1) All entities are autonomously distributed and coordinated using a simple and simple mechanism called “chain reaction based on stimulation and firing”.
(2) Reducing the difference in P2P network form to the problem of entity placement and management
As described above, one of the features of SIONet is that various forms of P2P networks can be constructed with a single mechanism.
[0047]
<Shared link>
The “shared link” is a concept for performing bidirectional event sharing between a plurality of different entities. For example, as shown in FIG. 14, when entity 2 makes a request for establishment of a shared link (SL) to entity 1, as shown in FIG. 15, SI-SW2 and SI-SW1 A shared link is established between them and a new entity group is formed. That is, the shared link is a mechanism for forming an entity group, and is also a multi-hop route.
[0048]
In FIG. 14, the entity 2 that has successfully established the shared link includes the event place name (global entity name) from the entity 1, the event transfer method (routing method) in the event place, and the description (description) of the event place. Various information such as SE information that is plugged in is transmitted. Various event routing methods can be dynamically set between SI-SWs by setting filter values using SI-R, which will be described later. In the following, the operation of establishing a shared link will be described, and the role and mechanism of SI-R will be described in detail.
[0049]
<Establishment of shared link>
A mechanism up to establishment of a shared link will be described with reference to FIGS. 14 and 15. First, in FIG. 14, consider a case where entity 2 issues a shared link establishment request to entity 1.
(1) The entity 2 issues a shared link establishment request to the entity 1.
[0050]
(2) As shown in FIG. 15, the entity control unit of entity 1 is SL _1,2 SI-R that performs event routing (event transfer) between SI and SW based on semantic information to NE factory to establish (shared link for receiving event from entity 2) _1,2 Are dynamically generated inside the entity 1. Further, the entity control unit stores that the entity 2 is a shared link establishment request source. Strictly speaking, the entry point of the entity 2 and the global entity name (SI-SW2) are stored as a shared link establishment request source.
[0051]
(3) SI-R _1,2 Establishes an event reception session for SI-SW 2 by making a request for establishment of an event reception session to entity 2. At this time, a filter indicating a condition of an event received by the entity 1 is registered in the SI-SW 2. In addition, SI-R _1,2 Establishes a session for event transmission to the SI-SW 1 to which it belongs. Such a combination of transmission and reception sessions established by SI-R is called a shared link. SL _1,2 For example, the event sent by SE4 to SI-SW2 is SI-R _1,2 Is also sent to SI-SW1.
[0052]
(4) At this time, SI-R _1,2 The event transfer method can be dynamically controlled according to the setting value of the filter registered in SI-SW2. An example is shown below.
(A) The event sent to SI-SW2 is unconditionally transferred to SI-SW1. That is, for all events, SI-R _1,2 Fires. This is made possible by setting “wildcard for the acquired vocabulary concept and true for the matching condition with semantic information (vocabulary)” as a filter that SI-R registers in SI-SW. This is called “unconditional routing”. This setting only needs to be performed once when the shared link is established. In this method, there is a possibility that unnecessary event transfer and event collation processing overhead at the transfer destination may occur. However, since there is no overhead for event path establishment (routing information setting) described later, the number of registered filters is small. This method is effective when it is sufficiently larger than the number of event transmissions. This routing method is mainly used for multi-hop broadcast communication.
[0053]
(B) Transfer only events necessary for entity 1 from SI-SW 2 to SI-SW 1. Thereby, unnecessary event transfer is not performed. That is, SI-R only for specific events _1,2 Fires. This is because SI-R sets only the vocabulary concept (matching condition is always true) in the filter as “event routing by vocabulary concept”, and sets the matching condition between the vocabulary concept and vocabulary as “filter”. It is divided roughly into. The former is mainly used for multicast communication with a multi-hop type attribute, and the latter is mainly used for multi-hop type unicast communication and multi-hop type multicast communication. This is used in failure processing notifications, statistical information notifications, alive notifications, reply notifications, advertisement notifications, and the like.
In addition to multi-hop communication such as multi-hop broadcast communication, multi-hop attribute multicast communication, multi-hop unicast communication, and multi-hop multicast communication, the communication destination can be set according to the filter value set by SI-R. Direct communication using entity entry points is also possible. Multi-hop broadcast communication, multi-hop attributed multicast communication, multi-hop unicast communication, and multi-hop multicast communication will be described later.
[0054]
(4) The procedures (2) to (3) described above are performed in the same way in the entity 2 that is the shared link establishment request source. That is, the entity control unit of entity 2 stores entity 1 (SI-SW1) as a shared link establishment request destination and SL. _2,1 SI-R to NE factory to establish _2,1 Is generated dynamically. This generated SI-R _2,1 Registers a filter in SI-SW1 in the same manner as described above, and establishes a shared link. Thereby, a bidirectional shared link is established between SI-SW1 and SI-SW2, and events can be shared among entities. Since SI-R does not register the filter, it is possible to establish a one-way shared link, that is, to prevent SI-R from being fired.
[0055]
<Establishing an event path>
Route selection information for event forwarding (event routing) (a set of filters that SI-R registers for event sharing) is called an “event path”. For example, as shown in FIG. 15, in a configuration in which entity 2 and entity 3 each establish a shared link with entity 1, consider a case where SE3 of entity 2 registers a filter for SI-SW2. At this time, SI-R of entity 2 _2,1 Registers the filter registered by SE3 to SI-SW1 of entity 1 via the reception session. Similarly, the SI-R of entity 1 _1,3 Registers the filter in the SI-SW 3 of the entity 3 via the reception session. In this way, with the filter registration by SE3 as a trigger, the SI-R registered filter sequentially spreads to adjacent SI-Rs based on the shared link, thereby establishing an event path. This is called “event path setting or spreading”.
[0056]
Here, the establishment of the event path for the above-described “event routing based on the vocabulary concept” will be described. In FIG. 15, in order to establish an event path for “event routing based on vocabulary concept”, in the filter registered by the SE3 of the entity 2 with respect to the SI-SW2, the SI-R _2,1 Sets only the event type (the matching condition is always true) as a filter to entity 1's SI-SW1. That is, the collation condition registered by SE3 as a filter is not used. In other words, by utilizing only the event type, for example, when SE1 of entity 1 sends an event, only the event type is collated in SI-SW1, and as a result, SI-R _2,1 When the fire ignites, SI-R _2,1 Sends the event to SI-SW 2 and collates with semantic information in SI-SW 2.
[0057]
In addition, establishment of an event path for the above-mentioned “event routing by vocabulary” will be described. In FIG. 15, when establishing an event path for “event routing by vocabulary”, the SI-R of entity 2 _2,1 Sets the filter value registered by SE3 as it is as the filter value to SI-SW1 of entity 1. That is, SI-R _2,1 Is a form in which both the event type and semantic information registered by SE3 as a filter are registered in SI-SW1 of entity 1 and complete filtering is performed in SI-SW1.
[0058]
Therefore, the event routing method based on vocabulary does not cause any unnecessary event transfer, but the event path setting overhead for routing becomes enormous, so this method is effective when the number of event transmissions is sufficiently larger than the number of registered filters. It is. On the other hand, the routing method based on the event type is positioned as a compromise between the two methods described above. In other words, it is effective when the number of filter registrations and the number of event transmissions are about the same, or when the ratio between the number of filter registrations and the number of event transmissions cannot be predicted. With these mechanisms, multi-hop communication of events based on semantic information is realized. An event routing method can be specified when generating an event place or registering a filter from an SE.
[0059]
The event path setting request is propagated to all SI-Rs in the event place, but the propagation range can be limited by the TTL value. The operation will be briefly described with reference to FIG. Here, for convenience of explanation, it is assumed that an event path is established for vocabulary concept routing, but the present invention is not limited to this. Further, each entity advertises (filter registration) the same vocabulary concept. The description will be made assuming that the TTL value is 2.
[0060]
In FIG. 16A, the SI-R of the entity 2 starts an event path setting request. Here, since the TTL value is 2, the event path setting request is propagated only to entity 1, entity 3, and entity 4, and as a result, the event path is established as shown in FIG. The
[0061]
Similarly to the above, when the SI-R of the entity 11 starts an event path setting request, an event path is established for the entity 10 and the entity 9. In the configuration shown in FIG. 16, when the SI-R of entity 2 and the SI-R of entity 11 make an event path setting request, the event path is not set in entity 5. Is not shared. That is, the event that has occurred from the entity 2 does not cause a chain reaction with the entities 5 to 11, and the event is not transferred to the entities 5 to 11.
[0062]
However, as shown in FIG. 16B, when the SI-R of the entity 5 initiates an event path setting request, the event path for the entity 4, the entity 5, the entity 6, the entity 7, and the entity 9 is determined. Is established. As a result, as shown in FIG. 16C, an event path is established for all entities in the event place except the entity 8.
[0063]
Thus, if the vocabulary concept is frequently used (reputed or popular) in the event place, the event path will eventually be established in the event place. Become. On the other hand, vocabulary concepts that are not so popular will eventually be deceived, which allows a mild chain reaction to be realized. Note that the numbers on the event path in FIG. 16 indicate the multiplicity.
[0064]
An entity can publish the multiplicity of event paths as an attribute of an entity property. On the other hand, an entity having a high multiplicity of event paths can be found by entity property discovery. At this time, by re-sharing the shared link with respect to the entity, it is possible to gradually gather like-minds (like entities) in the vicinity (localization of like-entities). Details of the entity property will be described later.
[0065]
From the viewpoint of distributed object technology, the event path can also be interpreted as follows. Entities that are super-distributed around the world have some “correlation” between them. There are various properties such as an entity name, a group name, and attributes (location, interest, reputation, fashion, service) that give a correlation. Based on the correlation, the entities have a connection between the entities and perform distributed cooperation. This entity that gives an entity correlation is called an entity property.
[0066]
In SIONet, this correlation is expressed by the vocabulary concept and vocabulary and set as an event path based on the shared link. The strength of the correlation corresponds to generalization / specialization of vocabulary concepts, multiplicity of event paths, and the like. That is, in SIONet, the correlation between entities is dynamically controlled and managed by an event path. This is the control of the chain reaction by the filter. Therefore, the entity does not have a fixed entity identifier.
[0067]
For example, an IP address is a fixed identifier of an entity based on a position. In SIONet, instead of this, an entity property described as a vocabulary concept / vocabulary is used as an entity identifier. Entities register these as filters in SI-SW, thereby declaring entity properties (entity identifiers) and advertising their properties based on shared links. This corresponds to the propagation of the event path. Thereby, an event path is established.
[0068]
As described above, SI-R is a network entity having both aspects of event transmission and event reception, and is not fundamentally different from a general service entity. In SIONet, an entity used for SIONet control such as SI-R is called a network entity (NE), particularly distinguished from a service entity (SE). In SIONet, all service entities and network entities are treated as a common entity, and autonomously operated according to a simple and consistent common logic of event transmission and event reception, that is, chain reaction of stimulus and firing. , Provide a super-distributed and super-loosely coupled architecture in which all entities can cooperate autonomously and distributedly.
[0069]
<Release and re-establish shared link>
In cases where an entity participating in the event place falls into a failure or leaves the event place, the remaining entity is not able to participate in the operation of the network for various reasons. By doing so, it is necessary to be able to continue the network service.
In such a case, SIONet releases the shared link established between SI and SW, and re-establishes the shared link. The operation will be described with reference to FIG.
[0070]
In FIG. 17, the first numbers (1) and (2) in the shared link establishment request indicate the order of those requests. That is, in order of the shared link establishment request, first, the shared link establishment request is made from the entity 2 to the entity 1. Next, a request for establishment of a shared link is made from entity 3 to entity 2. Finally, a shared link establishment request is made from entity 4 to entity 2. Here, “Each entity can make a shared link establishment request at most once in the same event place, but establishes a shared link based on a link topology that can accept an unlimited number of establishment requests. Propose a link establishment method. This guarantees that no loop will occur between entities linked by a shared link. That is, by using this method, an open link topology can be easily realized only by link re-establishment between adjacent entities.
[0071]
If the establishment request is successful in the above-described order, a shared link is established between each SI-SW by the above-described procedure. When the shared link is established, the entity control unit of each entity stores the entity that has made the establishment request and the entity that has accepted the establishment to itself. For example, the entity 2 holds a list of the entity 1 that has requested establishment and the entities 3 and 4 that have accepted the establishment of the entity 2.
In this situation, for example, when the entity 2 is moved out or removed, a shared link release request is issued to its own SI-SW 2 to release the shared link. Thereafter, each entity establishes a new shared link. The operation will be described below.
[0072]
(1) When the entity 2 leaves, the entity control unit of the entity 2 notifies the one-hop entity (entity 1, entity 3, entity 4) that the shared link is released. This can be done by sending an event with the TTL value of the event set to 1. At this time, for the entity (entity 3 and entity 4) that has accepted the establishment of the shared link to itself, the entity 1 that has made the establishment request is used as the establishment request destination of the new shared link on behalf of itself. teach. If there is no entity that has made an establishment request, an arbitrary entity is selected from the establishment requesting entities (one hop ahead) to itself, and this is used for the shared link on behalf of itself. The establishment request destination.
[0073]
(2) The entity control unit of entity 2 uses the shared link (SL _2,1 , SL _2,3 , SL _2,4 ) _2,1 , SI-R _2,3 , SI-R _2,4 (Not shown). SI-R _2,1 , SI-R _2,3 , SI-R _2,4 Is the SI-R of entity 2, and as described above, shared link SL for entity 1, entity 3, and entity 4 _2,1 , SL _2,3 , SL _2,4 Is established. These SI-Rs use this as a trigger to release the session of entity 2 to SI-SW2.
[0074]
(3) The entity control unit of entity 1 is SI-R _1,2 (Not shown) Shared Link SL _1,2 Instruct to cancel. SI-R _1,2 Shared link SL _1,2 Is released. The entity 1 waits for establishment requests from the entities 3 and 4.
(4) Similar to entity 1, entity 3 and entity 4 share a shared link (SL) established for SI-SW 2 (SI-SW 2 of entity 2). _3,2 , SL _4,2 ) Are all released, a shared link establishment request is made to the new entity (entity 1) instructed as the shared link establishment request destination from the entity 2, and the shared link is reestablished. That is, as described above, each entity control unit sends an SI factory to the NE factory. _3,1 , SI-R _4,1 To generate the SI-R _3,1 , SI-R _4,1 Shared link SL _3,1 , SL _4,1 Establish.
[0075]
As described above, the shared link establishment process and re-establishment process are performed only between adjacent entities and do not affect other entities. That is, there is no need to reconstruct links for all entities.
[0076]
The shared link is not only requested to release the shared link by following proper procedures such as moving out or deinstalling the entity, but also due to an entity failure, power failure, session (physical communication path) failure, etc. There are cases where you must re-establish. However, in such cases, it may not be possible to teach alternative entities that are needed when reestablishing a shared link. In SIONet, in order to cope with such a situation, each entity transmits an event of n hops (n is an arbitrary natural number) to grasp an alternative establishment request destination entity. In SIONet, finer hop control is possible by using TTL values and hop attributes. Examples of hop attributes include:
[0077]
(1) Only the entity requesting shared link establishment is targeted for hopping.
(2) Only the entity requesting the establishment of a shared link is a hop target.
(3) All entities are targeted for hopping.
[0078]
An example of an event flow when the hop attribute of (1) is designated is indicated by a broken line in FIG. In FIG. 18, (i / j) is shared link establishment information stored in each entity. i indicates the entity to which the entity has made a shared link establishment request, while j indicates the entity that has accepted the shared link establishment request. For example, (2/5, 6) of the entity 3 indicates that the entity 3 makes an establishment request to the entity 2 and accepts the establishment requests from the entities 5 and 6. Each entity holds shared link establishment information, so that, for example, when the entity 3 makes a further shared link establishment request to another entity, the request can be rejected as an error. This guarantees the consistency of the open link topology described above. In this situation, entity 6 has 3 hops and sends an event having the above-mentioned hop attribute (1), so that it becomes possible to know the existence of entity 1 and entity 2, which are alternatives when entity 3 fails. Become an entity.
[0079]
The hop attribute described above is used not only for searching for an alternative entity at the time of failure, but also for searching for an entity that can accept establishment of a shared link, and for searching for a top entity (nobody establishes a shared link). It is valid. In SIONet, only the top entity can establish a federation (corresponding to a shared link between event places) for other event places.
[0080]
<Purpose of online increase / decrease>
The purpose of the entity increase / decrease in SIONet is mainly divided into the following two.
(1) From the viewpoint of improving the total processing capacity of the event place, the number of entities in the event place is increased, and the event filtering process is load-balanced.
From the opposite point of view, the entity is reduced. This is mainly used in the operation of hybrid P2P and backbone P2P networks.
(2) A flexible and global P2P network is built from the bottom up by flexibly establishing a shared link for dynamically generated entities. This is mainly used in the operation of a pure P2P network.
[0081]
Note that a hybrid P2P network is a network that is configured by, for example, an operator such as a network provider generating an event place in advance on a host or the like, and a service entity such as a personal terminal connecting to the event place through a session. . The pure P2P network is a network configured by connecting entities that are individual transmission / reception terminals via shared links, and among these networks, the smallest unit for sharing an event is an event place. The backbone P2P network is a connection form between networks, for example, a network in a state where pure P2P networks in a plurality of regions are connected via a hybrid P2P network.
[0082]
<Type of increase / decrease>
SION provides several types of increase / decrease configurations, but here, typical configurations shown in FIGS. 19 and 20 will be described.
(1) Combining and separating event places
As shown in FIG. 19A, a plurality of event places can be synthesized. Here, composition refers to collecting entities belonging to a plurality of event places as members in one event place. As a typical example, service integration (information sharing) based on a business alliance between different service operators can be considered.
[0083]
This is because a request for establishing a shared link is issued to any entity belonging to the event place or an entity in the event place where the request is made, by issuing a composition request. As a result, a shared link is established between SI and SW, and the combination of both is realized. The request source and the request destination of synthesis may be either an entity or an event place. On the other hand, in the case of division, the established shared link is released and separated into event places.
[0084]
(2) Participating in and leaving the event place
As shown in FIG. 19B, an SI-SW is generated in the request source entity by making a Join request to the entity in the event place or the event place. Then, by issuing a shared link establishment request to the request destination entity, the shared link is established between the SI and SW, and can participate in the event place.
When the entity leaves the event place, the shared link between the entities is released, the shared link is reconstructed, and the entity leaves the event place as described above. At this time, the state of the entity that has moved out transitions to the suspended state.
[0085]
By requesting the entity to establish a shared link from the event place side, the entity can be taken into the event place. This is called absorption. The opposite is called splitting.
(3) Increase / decrease of entities (SI-SW)
As shown in FIG. 20 (c), when an entity expansion request is made to an entity in an event place or an event place, an SI-SW is newly generated for the specified entity, and an existing SI-SW is generated. A shared link is established with the SW. On the other hand, when an entity reduction request is made to the event place, a shared link release request is issued to the specified entity, and after the shared link between SI and SW is released, the shared link is reestablished. , The entity is deleted. At this time, the state of the entity transitions to Non-Existent.
[0086]
(4) Federation between event places
As shown in Fig. 20 (d), a SI-GW that transfers events between event places is dynamically generated by making a federation (cooperation) request to the entities in the event place or to the event place. Both event places cooperate through the session. Note that the federation request source and request destination may be either an entity or an event place.
[0087]
<Entity advertisement>
With reference to FIGS. 21 and 22, the advertisement (publication) of an entity will be described. There are the following two aspects to entity advertisement in SIONet.
Viewpoint 1: Entrance advertisement
Viewpoint 2: Entity property advertisement
Hereinafter, each viewpoint will be described.
Viewpoint 1: Entrance advertisement
The base event place is an event place serving as a base (starting point) for searching for (discovering) an optimal event place based on an entity. In other words, the base event place is the entrance to SIONet. Therefore, entities participating in the base event place can make the SIONet entrance public. Here, opening the entrance means advertising the entry point and the global entity name of the entity that is the shared link establishment request destination. This public information is found by a search using a broadcast described later.
[0088]
Viewpoint 2: Entity property advertisement
In any entity group connected by a shared link (all event places including the base event place), each entity can advertise its entity properties. This corresponds to the propagation of the event path described above. This public information is discovered by sending out a discovery event described later.
[0089]
The flow from entity disclosure and search to entity group formation will be described below. In the following, base entity, entity 1, entity 2, entity 3, entity 4, entity 5, and entity 6 belong to the base event place, and entity 3, entity 11, entity 12, and entity 13 belong to event place α. It will be described as belonging.
[0090]
(1) Install SIONet software on the host as shown in FIG. The state of the entity at this point is “Non-Existent” as described above. For convenience of explanation, this entity is assumed to be entity Y.
(2) By executing the SIONet software, the entity Y transitions from the “Non-Existent” state to the “Suspend” state. An entity in this state has not yet been recognized by SIONet.
[0091]
{Circle around (3)} The entity Y in the “suspend” state searches for the entrance (entry point and global entity name) of other entities belonging to the base event place in order to participate in the network as a component of SIONet.
Specifically, a nearby entity is searched from among entities participating in the base event place by broadcasting. The broadcast method depends on the implementation. For example, when implemented in a wireless network, all entities within the wireless reach are targeted for search. On the other hand, when implemented in an IP network, IP broadcast or IP multicast is performed. FIG. 21 shows that the entity 1 (entry point of the entity 1 and the global entity name) is found by the search by broadcast. If a nearby entity cannot be found by broadcasting, a well-known entity can be used. Well-known entities are called base entities. Note that the base entity can exist in all event places including the base event place.
[0092]
{Circle around (4)} The entity Y makes a join request to the base event place for the discovered entity 1. That is, the entity Y makes a Join request to the entry point of the entity 1 using the global entity name of the entity 1 as a parameter. The entity 1 that has received the join request from the entity Y accepts the join request only when the state transition of the entity 1 is “active” and the entrance and the entity property are in the public mode. The entity Y cannot issue a Join request exceeding the maximum number of Joins. The maximum number of Joins can be set by the owner of the entity Y or the like on the control panel of the entity Y. When the entity 1 receives the join request of the entity Y, a shared link is established between the entity Y and the SI-SW of the entity 1 by the same operation as described above. Thereby, the entity Y is self-organized as a network component in the base event place. At this time, the entity Y transitions from the “suspend” state to the “active” state.
[0093]
Entity Y joined to the base event place can open the entrance. You can also advertise entity properties.
Entity properties include global entity name (and entry point), nickname, group name, alive (only assertion exists, entry point and global entity name as shared link establishment information are not disclosed, entity is not disclosed (Even if it is a mode, there are disclosure targets), descriptions (descriptions of entities), attributes, etc. The attributes include plug-in SE information, event path multiplicity, event place information, and the like. The entity property description language includes XML.
[0094]
In FIG. 21, for example, the entity control unit of the entity 3 can publish the event place α in which the entity 3 participates simultaneously as an attribute of the entity property. Furthermore, the entity control unit can disclose not only the event place that is currently joined but also the event place information of the event place that has been joined in the past. This event place information is, for example, a description of the event place (description of the event place, explanation information), or the global entity name of the entity (semantic information switch) that established the shared link when participating in the event place ( Event place name + entity name, connection establishment information), entry point (entry point information), and the like. The number of entities that can hold the event place information joined in the past is arbitrary. For example, the entity owner or the like can be set by the control panel. The entity that has obtained the public event place information presents the event place information to the entity owner by outputting the event place information through a control panel or the like. Thereby, the entity owner can recognize the existence of another event place.
In SIONet, there is no function to centrally manage event place information such as where and what event place and what service is provided in that event place, so if you want to get event place information, Event place information needs to be obtained from entity properties of other entities. By making public the event place information that participated in the past as well as the event place that you are currently participating in, the chances of acquiring the event place information will increase, and the chances of participating in the event place that provides the service you want will increase. .
[0095]
When the entrance of the entity Y is released, these entity properties are registered as filters in the semantic information switch in the entity, whereby the entity properties are propagated to other entities based on the shared link, and an event path is established. Basically, the event path establishment request is propagated to all the entities in the event place, but the propagation range of the event path establishment request can be limited by the TTL value. The global entity name is used as an identifier during multi-hop type unicast communication, the group name is used as an identifier during multi-hop type multicast communication, and the attribute is used as an identifier during multicast communication with a multi-hop type attribute. For example, as a typical example of multi-hop unicast communication, there is a reply notification from an event reception entity to an event transmission source entity.
[0096]
In other words, the global entity name is multi-hop unicast communication, which is a communication method for transmitting an n-hop event from the SI-SW of the entity specified by the global entity name. Multi-hop multicast communication is a communication method for transmitting n-hop events to SI-SWs of entities belonging to a group specified by a group name. Multi-hop attributed multicast communication is a communication method for transmitting an n-hop event to an SI-SW of an entity having the same attribute as that of itself. Multi-hop broadcast communication is a communication method for transmitting an n-hop event to SI-SW of an arbitrary entity.
[0097]
(5) In FIG. 22, the entity Y who participated in the base event place releases “entity properties that meet his / her needs” by sending out a discovery event to search for the “event place where he / she wants to participate”. Search for the entity This discovery event is an event used for control of SIONet, and is equivalent to an event transmitted by SE. A discovery event is an event for igniting an NE, and a matching condition with an entity property is set in the semantic information portion of the event. In other words, adding a new function in SIONet means defining a new vocabulary concept and vocabulary (not adding a mechanism, but adding a chain reaction condition). As a result, various functions can be added only by a single mechanism (chain reaction).
[0098]
Here, it is assumed that the entity 3 is found as a result of the search. As described above, the entity 3 participates in the event place α simultaneously with the base event place. By discovering the entity 3, the entity Y can know the existence of the event place α.
(6) The entity Y issues a Join request to the event place α to the entity 3 and participates in the event place α. As described above, the entity 3 accepts a Join request (shared link establishment request) when its state transition is “active” and in the public mode.
[0099]
(7) Furthermore, the entity Y can send an event for the same search at the event place α. Thereby, it is possible to find a new entity that meets its own needs. For example, it is assumed here that the entity 12 has been discovered. That is, entity Y means that entity 12 that could not be found in the base event place can be found via entity 3. By repeating such an operation, it is possible to gradually reach an event place that meets its needs.
[0100]
The advertisement method shown here has the following effects.
(1) Since there is no broker (management unit) that manages public information of entities, it is possible to construct a self-organizing network that is strong in fault tolerance at low cost. In addition, it is not realistic to manage a huge number of public information (entry points and entity properties) with a broker.
(2) Since the event place suitable for the entity can be narrowed down to the formula to be determined, a desired event place can be efficiently searched. For example, even if the spillover range of the chain reaction (the hop number of the discovery event and the spillover range of the event path setting request for the entity property) is limited by the TTL value, as described above, the entity 12 via the entity 3 As a result, another event place to which the entity 12 belongs can be found. It should be noted that network traffic (event transfer count, event path setup request transfer count) can be reduced by limiting the spread range of the chain reaction.
[0101]
Note that entities that simply receive information from other entities without providing information (for example, without disclosing entity properties) will be forced to release the shared link as a penalty, As long as you are not satisfied, you can prevent them from participating in the event place again.
[0102]
<SE sharing method (automatic distribution)>
In the following, the mechanism of the SE sharing method will be described by taking SE (game application program) sharing in the game event place as an example.
(1) The owner of the entity 2 who is an operator of the game event place gives an event place name via the control panel of the entity 2. It is assumed that the event place name assigned here is “game”.
[0103]
(2) The entity control unit of entity 2 gives the global entity name “game + entity 2” to the SI-SW generated by the NE factory, as described above. Thereby, an event place is generated. At this time, the entity 2 that is the creator of the game event place automatically participates in the event place when the event place is generated.
(3) The owner of the entity 2 instructs the control panel of the entity 2 to plug in the game application program (SE). At this time, the executable file name of the application to be plugged in and the presence or absence of SE sharing are given as parameters.
[0104]
(4) The control panel of entity 2 notifies the entity control unit of this fact.
(5) The entity control unit of entity 2 stores the name of the executable file to be plugged in, and starts the application (SE) using the given executable file name, and between SI-SW and the application as described above Establish a session on That is, the plug-in in SIONet means establishing a session between the application and SI-SW.
[0105]
(6) The entity control unit of entity 2 advertises (publishes) the entity property of entity 2. Examples of the entity property public form of entity 2 include the following.
Entity 2 participates in the base event place and publishes the entity properties of entity 2 in the base event place.
Entity 2 discovers and participates in an event place that is closely related to the game event place by performing an expression search, and publishes the entity property of entity 2 in the event place.
-Entity 2 is a base entity. That is, the entity properties (entry point and global entity name) of entity 2 are made known.
[0106]
(7) The entity 1 that knows the existence of the entity 2 requests the entity 2 to participate in the game event place.
(8) If this request is approved, entity 1 requests entity 2 to establish a shared link. Then, a shared link is established between entity 1 and entity 2 as described above.
(9) When the shared link is established, the shared link establishment request destination (entity 2) returns information necessary for transmission / reception of the event in the event place to the establishment request source (entity 1). Specifically, for example, an event place name (global entity name), whether or not the event place that participated is a base event place, an event transfer method (routing method) in the event place, a description of the event place, a plug-in SE information (when there is SE sharing) and the like.
[0107]
Specifically, the SE information returned to the shared link establishment request source when sharing the SE share is, for example, an execution file name of the application to be plugged in or a file of the application.
(10) The entity control unit of the entity 1 that has received the file activates the application using the given executable file name as described above, and establishes a session between the SI-SW in the entity 1 and the application. Establish. As a result, the game application program is plugged into the entity 1 as SE.
[0108]
In other words, participation in an event place means that an entity group connected by a shared link is formed, and a participant shares a plug-in-completed application program. As a result, an entity that is a member in the event place can automatically use the plugged-in application simply by participating in the event place. Note that when the entity 1 leaves the game event place, the plugged-in game application program is plugged out. At that time, the entity 1 can continue to hold the received file, or the file may be deleted at the time of plug-out.
[0109]
The operation described above is application sharing in a pure P2P network environment. Therefore, the distribution of the application program is performed only between the two parties, that is, the shared link establishment destination entity and the establishment source entity, and thus does not affect other entities that are already coupled by the shared link. That is, since the processing is localized between the two parties for file transfer, scalable SE sharing can be achieved.
[0110]
<Business model>
Here, an embodiment in which the above-described SIONet is provided as a service will be described.
(1) Client server model
This is a form in which an event place is operated only by a predetermined entity. That is, only a predetermined entity can participate (Join) in the event place, and an entity permitted to participate constitutes an entity group by establishing a shared link between the entities. On the other hand, the other entities establish a session with the entity group, and send and receive events via the session. That is, an event place (a predetermined group of entities) is a server, and other entities correspond to clients. In this business model, each entity that is a member of an entity group behaves as an autonomous distributed computer, and when any entity falls into a failure, the remaining entities are self-organized and continue to operate the event place. In order to improve the processing capacity of the server, a new entity may be added to the event place. Therefore, it is possible to realize a scalable server that is strong in fault tolerance, inexpensive, and scalable as compared with the conventional server realization method.
[0111]
(2) Hybrid model
For example, an entity that is an operator of a game event place generates a game event place and becomes a base entity in the event place. On the other hand, an entity positioned as a user of a game event place enjoys the service at the event place by participating in the event place. In the conventional client server model, new capital investment (CPU power, storage, communication bandwidth, etc.) was required in proportion to the increase in the number of users, but this business model is based on the fact that users participate in the event place. In order to provide the user's own entity for service operation, the event place operator does not need new capital investment. Therefore, an inexpensive and scalable P2P service environment can be constructed. Note that the base entity can authenticate and charge a user (entity) participating in the event place. In addition, the base entity sends out a discovery event to discover an entity that can establish a shared link (alternate entity) from the entity group, and notifies the entity that wants to participate to the discovered entity. It is also possible to establish a shared link between the two.
[0112]
(3) Pure model
This is a business model in which all entities can freely participate (leave) in the event place.
As mentioned above, SIONet can realize various business models with a common mechanism by reducing to operation / placement problem. Therefore, it has a great effect on development man-hours, scale, debugging efficiency, ease of maintenance and the like.
[0113]
As described above, an entity in the “suspended” state cannot disclose an entrance or an entity property. An entity in the “suspend” state transitions to an “active” state by joining an arbitrary event place. Only entities in the “active” state can expose entrances and entity properties. Also, only the entities that are joined to the base event place can open the entrance. An entity can actually publish an entrance or an entity property when satisfying “publication is instructed by the control panel” and “the number of established sessions (shared link) for the entity does not exceed the default value”. For example, even if the owner of an entity instructs the disclosure using the control panel, if the shared link is established beyond the default value, the private mode is automatically set. The default value can be set on the control panel. For example, the entity owner can set the default value based on the ability of the entity.
[0114]
The network entity, network entity factory, entity control unit, control panel, service entity, semantic information switch, semantic information router, semantic information gateway may be realized by dedicated hardware, It may be configured by a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and the function may be realized by loading a program for realizing the function into a memory and executing it.
[0115]
In addition, a program for realizing the functions of a network entity, a network entity factory, an entity control unit, a control panel, a service entity, a semantic information switch, a semantic information router, and a semantic information gateway is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, You may implement | achieve by making a computer system read the program recorded on this recording medium, and executing it. Here, the “computer system” includes an OS and hardware such as peripheral devices.
Further, the “computer system” includes a homepage providing environment (or display environment) if a WWW system is used.
[0116]
The “computer-readable recording medium” refers to a storage device such as a flexible medium, a magneto-optical disk, a portable medium such as a ROM and a CD-ROM, and a hard disk incorporated in a computer system. Furthermore, the “computer-readable recording medium” dynamically holds a program for a short time like a communication line when transmitting a program via a network such as the Internet or a communication line such as a telephone line. In this case, a volatile memory in a computer system serving as a server or a client in that case, and a program that holds a program for a certain period of time are included. The program may be a program for realizing a part of the functions described above, and may be a program capable of realizing the functions described above in combination with a program already recorded in a computer system.
[0117]
[Embodiment of the Invention]
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described.
Self-organization operations such as synthesis, association, participation, and absorption of event places in SIONet, exploring formulas, chain reaction ripple range control (TTL value setting, event path setting request ripple range), high event path multiplicity By automating the function items that the entity owner (user) has instructed via the control panel, such as re-establishing the shared link to the entity (searching for alternative entities), the panelless (user input from the control panel Is unnecessary). In addition, the entity performs automation control such as addition, withdrawal, migration, etc. of the entity according to the load status and topology, automatic collection of statistical information, automatic collection of popular information and popular information.
In addition, a user agent (UA) capable of grasping user preferences and situations as a user agent and sharing user preferences among different services, a content agent (CA) acting as a content provider agent, and service provision A multi-agent, such as a service agent (SA), which is an agent of the service provider, is plugged into the entity as a service entity. These dynamically determine the behavior of the entity based on the user's filter registration history, event transmission history, service history used, and the like. This is a technology for grasping, negotiating and determining preferences, technology, thinking, behavior, values, sensibilities, and emotions. It also realizes automatic community construction and community collaboration between communities based on entity policies. In addition, free vocabulary communication, automatic ontology conversion in SI-GW, complete automation of entities to eliminate the need for instructions from the owner (panelless), intelligent discovery, etc.
[0118]
Here, as an example of automation control, we propose a method for automating formula search. FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining automatic control for formula search according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the expression search, the event place information to which the entities belong simultaneously can be disclosed to the appropriate event place, that is, the dynamic construction of an organic and efficient expression search network is determined. This is the main factor that determines the search accuracy of the expression search. In SIONet, there are the following event opportunity information disclosure opportunities by entities.
[0119]
(1) When an entity wants to actively introduce its own event place or event place to which it belongs as a member, it becomes a member of the referral event place, and the generated event place (created by itself) Publish event place) property information to other event places. For example, in FIG. 1, the entity 4 that is a member of the event place D simultaneously becomes a member of the event place C, so that the introduction information of the event place D is disclosed to the event place C as a property. Yes (▲ 1 ▼). In general, a similar event place such as an event place with a high event path multiplicity, an event place with a high trust, or an event place with a high incentive is selected as an introduction destination event place.
(2) For example, an entity that desires information on both “baseball” and “movie” belongs to two event places “baseball event place” and “movie event place” simultaneously. At this time, the property information of “movie event place” is disclosed in “baseball event place” as event place information to which the user belongs at the same time. On the other hand, the property information of “baseball event place” is made public in “movie event place”.
(3) As described above, as a result of the expression search based on the event place through the entities belonging to a plurality of event places at the same time, the entity that has found the desired event place contributes as a volunteer to the expression search determined by other entities that follow. In order to do so, it is obliged to establish a formula search path. For example, the entity 1 belonging to the event place A discovers the event place D via the event place B and the event place C by performing property discovery, and stays there ((2)). . At this time, the entity 1 publishes the property information of the event place D to the event place by belonging to an event place arbitrarily selected from its own passing event place. This is intended to prevent, for example, the loss of an expression search path that occurs when the entities 2 belonging to the event places A, B, and E retreat, and to establish a shortcut route for the event place D. As a typical example of the latter, the entity 1 that newly becomes a member of the event place D causes the entity 1's virtual entity to participate in the search path event place such as the event place A or the event place B, The entity publishes the property information of event place D. As a result, the event place D can be found directly from the event place A even without going through the event place C or when the entity 3 leaves. Note that the temporary entity refers to an entity that simultaneously belongs to an event place other than the event place that is explicitly participating by the user operating (inputting) the entity.
In opportunity (1) and (3), lifetime management of “event place information belonging simultaneously” published as a property is performed. For example, contribution points are paid out to the entity 4 belonging to the event place C who introduced the event place D to the entity 1 ((3)). Then, as long as the contribution point does not fall below the threshold value (lower limit value), the entity 4 continues to disclose the event place information at the event place C. If the contribution point falls below the threshold, the next publication destination is selected from event places that the entity 4 has passed in the past ((4)). This concept is also applied to the entity 1 that discloses the event place information of the event place D in the event place A. In this way, this function automatically determines the event destination place where the simultaneous event place information is disclosed, which is an important factor when performing a formula search based on it, and by disclosing information at the event place, Efficient expression search is realized.
[0120]
If the contribution point exceeds the threshold value (upper limit value), the entity 4 adds an event place as a disclosure destination ((5)). In addition, as described in (4), when the contribution point falls below the threshold value, and the next publication destination, for example, event place B, is selected from the event places that the entity 4 has passed in the past, the event place C is selected. Leave, participate in Event Place B, and publish the properties ((6)).
On the other hand, in the search path (passage path) of the entity 1, the entity's alternation (temporary body) publishes the event place D (7).
[0121]
In order to achieve the purpose of formula search, it is a means of attracting advertisements to the community after the transition according to the history information of the members who transition the community and the history information, and the means by which multiple advertisements are naturally selected by evaluating the effect of the advertisement Thus, it is possible to automate and search part or all of the processes leading to the discovery of communities based on user preferences and the discovery of communities with necessary services. Note that a community is a group of people or things that share the hobbies, interests, interests, and the like, or that combine services to realize services and functions, and are here an event place. This is different from the prior art in that the present invention uses the history information of members who make transitions in the community, and the call-in advertisement to the community and the evaluation to make the advertisement natural.
[0122]
FIG. 25 shows a block diagram of an entity according to one embodiment.
The user interface unit accepts a search start instruction from the main screen for searching by the user, and activates the execution control unit.
The execution control unit recursively repeats the instruction for the likes search process and the process of moving to the community advertised by the found likes group. As a routine for performing these processes, the control unit calls the preference search unit and the community evaluation unit.
The similarity search unit treats the search keyword input by the user as desired, and the determination of desired match is made by character string comparison (partial match search) with respect to the explanatory text of the community in which the entity participates, or the user's desire is analyzed The determination can be made by finding an entity that matches (or resembles) the desired information.
The community evaluation unit first makes a community introduction request to the entity group discovered by the preference search unit. Next, the community introduced by those entities is evaluated (scored). At this time, evaluation can be performed by using only the community evaluation point returned from the introduction source entity as the evaluation value of the community.
[0123]
On the other hand, the advertisement control unit holds a community evaluation table in order to advertise the community in which it participates and to evaluate the community in which it participates. The evaluation values in this table are based on the evaluation by the community evaluation unit (community evaluation points) at the time of introduction, and user satisfaction at the introduction destination from the entity that introduced the community in the past (for example, a score based on the stay time) ) Is always changed by receiving (or not receiving) feedback from the feedback control unit. When there are no more communities to be introduced in the community evaluation table, the current advertisement is interrupted, moved to another community, and the advertisement is started again.
[0124]
The feedback control unit notifies community evaluation based on user satisfaction. This control unit can be called from the session management unit after participating in a community by automatic search, and can feed back the user satisfaction (for example, a score based on the staying time) for the referral entity of the community to the advertisement control unit It is.
Therefore, it is possible to automate and search a part or all of the process leading to the discovery of the community based on the user's preference and the discovery of the community having the necessary service, which is the object of the present invention.
[0125]
In addition, the session management unit manages the session with the semantic information network and accepts status update notifications and inquiries from each functional block, so that the latest session-related management and navigation information, etc. It is possible to hold and provide information.
The event analysis unit receives an event from the semantic information network and dispatches the event, extracts a request ID from the received event, and calls a registered listener. Also, a session forced deletion notification is received by the semantic information network.
The semantic information network (SIONet) interface (semantic information network access means) provides basic operations provided by the semantic information network, as well as routine operations (session establishment, participation, advertisement start, etc.) that combine them. It has a role of hiding the function block. Therefore, to realize a function on the semantic information network that can automate and search part or all of the processes leading to the discovery of communities based on user preferences and the discovery of communities with necessary services, which is the object of the present invention. Is possible.
[0126]
FIG. 26 is an example of community search operation according to one embodiment.
In FIG. 26, the entity: M starts searching from above the community: A. It is assumed that all entities other than the entity performing the search: M advertise simultaneous EP (event place) information (community information). In addition, there are other entities that make advertisements in the community: A, and in the entity: N and the entity: O, the search keyword and the description set in the self match and fire. Thereby, entity: N and entity: O introduce community: B and community: C that respectively match the search keyword. Entity: M is a candidate for participation if the score of the introduced community is higher than the community evaluation threshold. In this case, the entity: M does not leave because it participates according to the intention of the user. Further, the entity: M performs “participation for search” to the community: B and the community: C introduced as candidates for participation, and continues the search.
[0127]
In the community: B, the search keyword in the entity: N and the entity: Q matches the description set in itself, and fires. Thereby, the entity: N and the entity: Q introduce the community: A and the community: E that respectively match the search keyword. Here, if the evaluation score of the introduced community is higher than the community evaluation threshold, the entity: M is a candidate for participation, but the community: A is excluded because it has already passed. Further, “participation for search” is performed on the community: E, and the user leaves the community: B.
[0128]
On the other hand, in the community: C, the entity: O, the entity: R, and the entity: S are fired, and the community: A, community: F, and community: G that match the search keyword are introduced. Entity: M is a candidate for participation if the evaluation score of the introduced community is higher than the community evaluation threshold, but community: A is excluded because it has already passed. Moreover, since community: F and community: G are less than the evaluation threshold of entity: M, they are not considered as participation candidates. At this time, “participation for search” is to move to the community of the highest evaluation point among evaluation points below the evaluation threshold. Here, “participation for search” is performed to the community: G, and the search is performed. to continue.
By repeating this process, participation candidates are searched, recorded, and presented to the user as candidates until the maximum number of participation candidates or the automatic search timeout value is reached.
At the start of the search, these tasks are carried out simultaneously from all participating communities.
[0129]
Table 1 is a tune-up parameter table that is a list of tuning parameters held by an entity, and specifies various conditions (parameter items, their valid values, default values, etc.) used for community search, community evaluation, etc. Yes. The setting values of these tuning parameters can be defined by an external file, but if no external file exists, default values are used. The item number is a value used for convenience to specify a record. The explanation column shows the usage and usage of each parameter item.
[Table 1]

[0130]
FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating an outline flow of automatic community search according to an embodiment.
First, the user inputs a search keyword (search information) on the main screen for performing a search displayed by the search source entity (step S100), and clicks a search start button (step S110). Thereby, the search source entity performs a participation candidate community search process to be described later (step S120). In the case of the first time, this participation candidate community search process is performed until all the communities in which the participant participates at the time of starting the search and until the maximum number of participation candidates or the automatic search timeout value is satisfied.
[0131]
If there is a participation candidate community as a result of the community search processing (step S130 yes), the search source entity displays the participation candidate community and its evaluation by the control panel (step S140). Note that the number of community participation that the user can select is limited and displayed by the setting value of the maximum number of event place participation in SIONet.
On the other hand, if there is no participation candidate as a result of the community search process (step S130no), the fact that the participation candidate could not be found as a result of the search is displayed in the entity dialog (step S150).
[0132]
FIG. 28 is a diagram showing an outline flow of a participation candidate community search process according to an embodiment.
First, the search source entity adds the community to which it currently belongs to the passage history (step S200). At this time, if there is a passage history that has been taken over, the current community is added to the history, but if there is no passage history that has been taken over, a passage history is newly added.
Subsequently, the search source entity executes a search process for likes (entities having the same or similar attributes) (step S210). The favorite search is performed by comparing the input search keyword and the character string of the community description published by the entity. This is performed until the maximum number of likes or the operation multiple response timeout value is met.
[0133]
If the likes can be found (step S220yes), the search source entity performs the community introduction request process for the found number of likes (step S230). This is a process for introducing the community to the found likes, thereby obtaining an evaluation (community assessment) for the search keyword of the community in which the likes are participating. Then, it is determined whether there is a next search candidate community by determining a community as a participation candidate based on the community evaluation value and notifying the caller of this process (step S240). Note that this next search candidate community covers all communities whose community evaluation exceeds the community evaluation threshold. Or when all do not exceed a community evaluation threshold value, the thing with the largest community evaluation is made into object among them. However, when all the acquired evaluations are “0”, there is no community for the next search candidate.
If there is a next search candidate community, the search source entity subsequently determines whether or not to continue the process depending on whether the maximum number of participation candidates has been reached or the automatic search timer value has been satisfied (step S250). When the process is continued, the next search candidate community is joined by the number of next search candidates (step S260). Then, the “participation candidate community search process” is performed for the participating communities by the number of next search candidates (step S270). Then, if the community to which the search currently belongs is a community that has participated in the search, the search source entity leaves the community (step S280).
If no preference is found in step S220, if there is no self-search candidate community in step S240, or if the process is not continued in step S250, the process leaves the community in step S280.
[0134]
29 to 33 are detailed sequence diagrams between functional units of the community automatic search according to the embodiment.
In FIG. 29, the user double-clicks a favorite search icon displayed on the entity control panel (step S300). Thereby, the event analysis unit receives a screen display event for a favorite search (step S301), and instructs the user interface unit to display a screen for search (step S302). The user interface unit returns an acceptance response to the screen display for search (step S303) and displays the main screen.
[0135]
Subsequently, the user sets search information (search keyword) on the main screen, and requests a start of search by clicking a START (start of search) button (step S304). Then, the user interface unit obtains a list of event place EP information to which the user interface unit belongs (steps S305 and S306). Subsequently, the user interface unit notifies the session management unit of the search start (step S307). The session management unit initializes the participation candidate EP list and returns an acceptance response (step S308). Upon receiving the acceptance response, the user interface unit starts measuring the search time, activates threads for the number of EPs to which the user interface unit belongs, and executes search processing according to the event place (step S309).
[0136]
In the search process, the user interface unit activates the execution control unit, and passes the search source EP-ID and the search keyword (step S310). As a result, the execution control unit executes a preference search process (step S311).
[0137]
In the like search process shown in FIG. 30, the execution control unit passes the search source EP-ID and the search keyword to the like search unit, and requests a like search (step S320). When the favorite search unit delivers a search source EP-ID and a search keyword to the SIONet interface unit and instructs the favorite search (step S321), a list of global entity names (Global Entity Names) of the favorite entities is returned as a result of the search. (Step S322). The execution control unit receives a list of global entity names from the preference search unit (step S323). If the list is Null, that is, if no preference is found, a search result display process described later is performed (step S324). . On the other hand, when the list of global entity names is not Null, that is, when a similar entity is found, a community introduction request process shown below is executed (step S325).
[0138]
In the community introduction request process shown in FIG. 31, the execution control unit passes a search source EP-ID, a list of introduction request destination global entity names and a search keyword to the community evaluation unit, and requests community introduction (step S330). The community evaluation unit delivers a search source EP-ID, a list of introduction request destination global entity names and a search keyword to the SIONet interface unit, and issues a community introduction request instruction (step S331). A list of sets of evaluation points is returned (step S332). The community evaluation unit delivers the introduction source global entity name, the search keyword, the list of participation candidate Well Known points and the community evaluation point set, and the passage history to the session management unit, and registers the participation candidate (step S333). ). When the session management unit registers participation candidates and the community evaluation unit receives an acceptance response (step S334), it requests the user interface unit to determine whether or not to continue the search (step S335). The user interface unit acquires the number of participation candidate communities from the session management unit (steps S336 and S337). When (total number of participating candidate communities <threshold) and (elapsed search time <threshold), “true (continue processing)”, (total number of participating candidate communities ≧ threshold), or (search If (elapsed time ≧ threshold), a determination result of “false (do not continue processing)” is returned to the community evaluation unit (step S338). When the community evaluation unit receives “true (continues the processing)”, the community evaluation unit transmits a list of sets of the well-known well known points and community evaluation points to the execution control unit (step S339). The community to be searched next is all those whose evaluation exceeds the threshold value, or the evaluation score is the maximum when there is no evaluation exceeding the threshold value. Also, if the immediately preceding search continuability determination is “false (do not continue processing)”, “null” is returned.
[0139]
When the execution control unit receives a list of well-known points and community evaluation point sets of the next search destination from the community evaluation unit, if the depth of spelling is other than 1, that is, if it is participation for search In step S340, the search source EP-ID is transferred to the SIONet interface unit, and an exit instruction is transmitted. When the SIONet interface unit receives the leaving instruction, it returns an acceptance response to leave the community (step S341).
[0140]
Then, in FIG. 32, when the list of the next well-known point of the well-known search destination and community evaluation point received from the community control unit is “null”, search result display processing described later is performed (step S350). ). If it is other than “null”, threads corresponding to the number of Well Known points are activated, and a movement process for participating in the introduced community is executed (step S351).
[0141]
In the movement process, the execution control unit delivers a Well Known point to the SIONet interface unit and issues a participation instruction (step S360). When the SIONet interface unit participates in the community and the execution control unit receives the EP-ID, the preference search process is performed again (steps S361 and S362).
[0142]
In the search process display process of FIG. 33, the user interface unit waits for a predetermined time (step S370). During this time, the execution control unit ends the search in the activated thread. When the waiting time expires and there are participation candidates, the user interface unit notifies the search result to the control panel (step S371), and the user confirms the search result displayed on the control panel (step S372). . On the other hand, if there is no participation candidate, the user interface unit receives a notification dialog display instruction and displays a screen for notifying that the community has not been found (step S375). When the user recognizes from the notification dialog that there is no participation candidate, the user clicks the OK button (step S376).
[0143]
FIG. 34 is a diagram showing a main screen according to one embodiment.
In the main screen for searching shown in FIG. 34, a [search information] field (1) for inputting a search keyword and a [navigation information] list box (2) for displaying information of a community that is currently advertising. And a [search start] button (3) for starting a search with the search keyword input in the [search information] field (1). Then, by entering a search keyword in the [Search Information] field (1) and pressing the [Start Search] button (3), all the communities in which the user participates are searched as the search source at the start of the search. To start. In the [Navigation Information] list box (2), the latest state is always displayed.
[0144]
FIG. 35 is a diagram showing a search result display screen when no community is found according to one embodiment.
When there is no participation candidate in step S375 in FIG. 33, the user interface unit displays a search result display screen shown in FIG. When the user recognizes from the notification dialog that the community has not been found, the user clicks the OK button (1) to close this screen.
[0145]
The embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and includes design changes and the like within a scope not departing from the gist of the present invention.
[0146]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, even if any entity in the event place (community) leaves, participates, etc., the function for searching for the event place through entities participating in multiple event places at the same time is hindered. An entity device, a community search method, and a computer program can be provided. In addition, it is possible to automatically search for an appropriate community by learning whether or not it is worth advertising in the event place to which the entity belongs, so the waiting time for searching can be reduced. Furthermore, there are advantages and effects such that resources can be used effectively, and a community searcher (search entity) without search know-how can search for an appropriate community.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining automatic control of a formula search based on an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining entities in SIONet (semantic information network), which is a prerequisite technology of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining entity state transition in SIONet;
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of an entity in SIONet.
FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining generation of an event place in SIONet.
FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an operation in which an entity in SIONet participates in an event place.
FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a semantic information switch SI-SW and a session in SIONet.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a configuration of events in SIONet.
FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining a semantic information system in SIONet.
FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining an operation in which an entity participating in a certain event place further participates in another event place in SIONet.
FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining a service entity plug-in in SIONet;
FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining a reference model in SIONet.
FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining a shared link in SIONet.
FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining a shared link in SIONet.
FIG. 15 is a diagram for explaining a shared link in SIONet;
FIG. 16 is a diagram for explaining an event path in SIONet;
FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining re-establishment of a shared link in SIONet.
FIG. 18 is a diagram for explaining a hop attribute in SIONet;
FIG. 19 is a diagram for explaining event place and entity increase / decrease in SIONet;
FIG. 20 is a diagram for explaining event place and entity increase / decrease in SIONet;
FIG. 21 is a diagram for explaining entity advertisement in SIONet;
FIG. 22 is a diagram for explaining entity advertisement in SIONet;
FIG. 23 is a diagram showing dimensions of a P2P model.
FIG. 24 is a diagram for explaining the concept of SIONet.
FIG. 25 is a block diagram of an entity according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 26 is a diagram showing an operation example of community search according to the embodiment.
FIG. 27 is a diagram showing an outline flow of automatic community search according to the embodiment;
FIG. 28 is a diagram showing an outline flow of a participation candidate community search process according to the embodiment.
FIG. 29 is a detailed sequence diagram between functional units of the community automatic search according to the embodiment;
FIG. 30 is a detailed sequence diagram between functional units of community automatic search according to the embodiment;
FIG. 31 is a detailed sequence diagram between functional units of the community automatic search according to the embodiment;
FIG. 32 is a detailed sequence diagram between functional units of community automatic search according to the embodiment;
FIG. 33 is a detailed sequence diagram between functional units of the community automatic search according to the embodiment;
FIG. 34 is a diagram showing a main screen according to the embodiment.
FIG. 35 is a diagram showing a search result display screen when no community is found according to the embodiment.

Claims (6)

Through Entite I belonging to a plurality of event places, a computer functioning as an entity that performs a search for the appropriate event place while transition between the event place,
User interface means for providing an input / output interface to a user, receiving search information from the user, and displaying a search result;
In the event place to which the user currently belongs, an instruction for a favorite search for searching for a favorite entity that holds information about the event place that matches or is similar to the search information input by the user interface means. And the movement to another event place indicated by the information returned from the computer functioning as the detected preferred entity is recursively within a predetermined time or until the predetermined number of event places are reached. Execution control means to perform,
A preference search means for receiving a preference search instruction from the execution control means and searching for a favorite entity in an event place to which the current position belongs;
The other event place indicated by the information returned from the computer functioning as the favorite entity detected by the favorite search means is evaluated, and the other event place as the movement destination is selected from the other event places , and the execution is performed. Event place evaluation means to notify the control means,
Itself to belong event place, with itself to advertise by transmitting information about other events places belonging simultaneously, and advertisement control means to stop the advertisement based on the evaluation of the event place to which it belongs,
A computer comprising: Feedback control means for notifying the user satisfaction level in the other event place to a computer functioning as a favorite entity that is advertising by transmitting information of the other event place to which the execution control means has moved Prepared,
The ad unit, based on the user satisfaction that it has received from the computer that functions as other entities moved to other events place advertising, to perform the evaluation of the event place to which it belongs,
The computer according to claim 1. A semantic information network access means for providing access to the semantic information network;
The latest information related to the session, including at least navigation information, which is information about an event place that is currently advertised, while managing a session with a computer functioning as another entity participating in the semantic information network Session management means for holding and providing
Event analysis means for receiving an event from the semantic information network and dispatching the event by a user operation received by the user interface means;
The computer according to claim 1, further comprising: Event place to advertise the event place participated in response to the operation of the user or, according claim 1, wherein the execution control means is any event place in the event place performing the movement Item 4. The computer according to item 3. Through Entite I belonging to a plurality of event places, a event place search method used in a computer that functions as an entity that performs a search for the appropriate event place while transition between the event place,
In a computer functioning as the entity,
User interface means, after receiving an input of search information from the user,
Execution control means, in the event in a place to which the current itself belongs, to explore the club entities that publish can hold the information of the event place that matches or similar input search information,
Event place evaluation means evaluates the other event place indicated by the sent back from the computer to function as an entity of the detected club information,
The execution control means is
Select another event place to move to among other event places based on the rating ,
Move to another selected event place
Do it recursively within a certain time or until the number of event places to be moved reaches a certain number,
While the user interface means displays search results,
Advertisement control means, to the event place to which it belongs, itself to stop advertising based on the evaluation of the event place a row Utotomoni, it belongs to advertisement by sending information about other events places belonging simultaneously,
The event place search method characterized by this. Through Entite I belonging to a plurality of event places, a computer computer program which is used as an entity that performs a search for the appropriate event place while transition between the event place,
An input step for receiving search information from a user;
In the event place to which the current user belongs, search for a favorite entity that holds information on event places that match or are similar to the input search information,
The evaluation of other event places indicated by the information returned from the computer acting as the preferred entity found,
Of the other event places based on the evaluation, the selection of another event place to be moved to,
Move to the selected event place ,
Performing recursively within a predetermined period of time or until a predetermined number of event places are reached,
Displaying the search results;
Itself to belong event place, and the step of performing an advertisement by sending the information of other events place belonging itself at the same time,
Stopping the advertisement based on the evaluation of the event place to which it belongs;
A computer program for causing a computer to execute.

Images