JP5487138B2 - Information value digitizing apparatus and communication system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an information value digitizing apparatus and a communication system for digitizing the value of information in order to perform control according to the value of information flowing through a network.

  In the conventional network, most of the information distributed is handled equivalently. In the current Internet using TCP / IP, video and audio packets as well as information such as web content and mail are abstracted as packets. The packet includes information about the source and destination, and the network transfers the packet from the source to the destination. When transferring a packet, resources are generally consumed. The most typical example is the amount of bandwidth used for transfer.

  FIG. 19 shows a general example of information flowing through the network. The information provider connects to the network in a Bibps band and provides the information to the user. On the other hand, the information user connects to the network in the Bo bps band and acquires the information. In the network, an information transfer device is used to deliver the information received from the information provider to the user. Here, in order for the information to reach the user from the provider, the information transfer apparatus may be passed several times. When Bi> Bo, since the network cannot transfer all information to the user, a phenomenon such as information delay or destruction occurs in the information transfer apparatus.

  Information distribution using a network is designed and controlled for the purpose of reliably transferring information. Therefore, in network bandwidth design, there is a measure to prepare a bandwidth that exceeds the demand during the most busy hours, measure the line status, and increase the bandwidth of the communication line that shows signs of congestion. Has been done. In addition, when transferring information, a method of giving priority to information, preferentially handling the information at the time of transfer, and maintaining serviceability is widely used.

Kamatani, Shimizu, Kawamura “Examination of New Information and Knowledge Distribution Focusing on Value”, 2010 IEICE Society Conference, B-7-6 C. Openheim, “Studies on information as an asset III: views of information professionals”, Journal of Information Science, 30 (2) 2004, pp. 228 181-190 H. Jin, "Information Value Evaluation Model for ILM", Ninth ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering, 2008, pp. 543-548 R, Glazer, “Measuring the value of information: The information-intense organisation”, IBM SYSTEMS JOURNAL, VOL. 32, NO. 1,1993 D. Woody, P.M. Walsh. “Measuring the value of information: An asset value approach”, 2. THE NATURE OF INFORMATION AS AN ASSET, In European Conference on Information Systems, 1999

  When transferring information, a method of giving priority to information and preferentially handling the information at the time of transfer is widely used. However, priority control is only performed on a service basis such as a telephone or video service. Controls such as protecting higher value calls within the telephone service could not be performed.

  In particular, in network bandwidth design, it is always necessary to prepare a bandwidth that exceeds the demand. However, if an information distribution amount that exceeds the predicted amount occurs, the amount of information that exceeds the bandwidth is discarded regardless of the value of the information. It was.

  Therefore, the present invention provides an information value quantification device, a communication system, and an information value quantification that convert value information of different definitions into mutually comparable radix values when performing network control using the value of information flowing through the network. An object is to provide a method, a communication method, and a program.

  In order to achieve the above object, an information value digitizing device, a communication system, an information value digitizing method, a communication method, and a program according to the present invention extract value information from information sent from a transmitting device, and extract the value information. In a communication system in which the transfer device performs network control of the information based on the value radix value, the information value quantification device defines the extracted value information as a radix. If it has a unique property, after converting it into an ordinal value definition, set the radix value according to the rank by the ordinal number, and the definition of the extracted value information has the ordinal property. In such a case, a radix value corresponding to the rank by ordinal number is set.

Specifically, the information value digitizing apparatus of the present invention compares the value information extracting unit that extracts the value information indicating the value of the transmission information from the transmission information and the value information extracted by the value information extracting unit. A value calculating unit that determines a rank of the value and determines a value determined by the determined rank as a value indicated by the value information, and the value calculating unit represents the contents of the value information Refer to a table that defines whether the value definition has a radix property or an ordinal property, determine whether the value definition of the value information has a radix property or an ordinal property, and When the value definition of information is radix, the value information is compared with each other to determine the rank of the value, and a numerical value determined by the determined rank is determined as the value indicated by the value information, value If broadcast value definitions are ordinal it is characterized by determining a value that is obtained by the value information extracting said value information extracting section as a value indicated by the value information.

  Since the information value digitizing apparatus of the present invention includes the value information extraction unit, it is possible to extract information that can evaluate the value of the transmission information. Since the information value digitizing apparatus of the present invention includes the value calculating unit, it can calculate a numerical value corresponding to the value indicated by the value information, and can evaluate the value of the transmission information using the numerical value. Therefore, when performing network control using the value of information flowing through the network, the information value digitizing apparatus of the present invention can convert value information of different definitions into base values that can be compared with each other.

Specifically, the communication system of the present invention includes a transmission device that transmits the transmission information, an information value digitization device of the present invention that determines the value of the transmission information transmitted by the transmission device, and the information value numerical value. A transfer device that transfers the transmission information based on the value determined by the conversion device, and a reception device that receives the transmission information transferred by the transfer device.

  Since the communication system of the present invention includes a transmission device, a transfer device, and a reception device, transmission information can be transmitted. Here, since the communication system of the present invention includes the information value digitizing apparatus of the present invention, when performing network control using the value of information flowing through the network, the base values that can compare the value information of different definitions with each other. Can be converted to

Specifically, the information value quantification method of the present invention compares a value information extraction procedure for extracting value information indicating the value of transmission information from the transmission information and the value information extracted by the value information extraction procedure. determining the height of the order of value by a numerical value defined by the determined rank have a, and value calculation procedure for determining a value indicated by the value information in the value calculation procedure, the contents of the license information Referring to a table that defines whether the value definition to be represented has a radix property or an ordinal property, determines whether the value information value definition has a radix property or an ordinal property, and When the value definition of the value information is radix, the value information is compared with each other to determine the rank of the high value, and the value determined by the determined rank is the value indicated by the value information. Constant and, when the value defined in the value information is ordinal is characterized by determining a value that is obtained by the value information extracted by the value information extraction procedure as value indicated by the value information.

  Since the information value quantification method of the present invention has a value information extraction procedure, information that can evaluate the value of transmission information can be extracted. Since the information value quantification method of the present invention has a value calculation procedure, it is possible to calculate a numerical value corresponding to the value indicated by the value information and evaluate the level of the value of the transmission information using the numerical value. Therefore, the information value quantification method of the present invention can convert value information of different definitions into base values that can be compared with each other when performing network control using the value of information flowing through the network.

Specifically, the communication method of the present invention includes a transmission procedure for transmitting the transmission information, an information value quantification method of the present invention for determining the value of the transmission information transmitted in the transmission procedure, and the information value numerical value. A transfer procedure for transferring the transmission information based on the value determined by the conversion method, and a reception procedure for receiving the transmission information transferred in the transfer procedure.

  Since the communication method of the present invention includes a transmission procedure, a transfer procedure, and a reception procedure, transmission information can be transmitted. Here, since the communication method of the present invention has the information value quantification method of the present invention, when performing network control using the value of information flowing through the network, radix values that can compare value information of different definitions with each other. Can be converted to

Specifically, the program of the present invention is a program for causing a computer to execute a value information extraction procedure and a value calculation procedure.
Since the program of the present invention causes a computer to execute the information value quantification method of the present invention, when performing network control using the value of information flowing through the network, the value information of different definitions can be converted into radix values that can be compared with each other. Can be converted.

  According to the present invention, when performing network control using the value of information flowing through a network, an information value quantification device, a communication system, and an information value quantification that convert value information of different definitions into radix values that can be compared with each other. A method, a communication method, and a program can be provided.

1 shows an example of a communication system according to a first embodiment. An outline of the operation of the information value digitizing device 14 when the value information has universal value is shown. An outline of the operation of the information value digitizing device 14 when the value information has variable value is shown. 3 shows a configuration example of a communication system according to a second embodiment. 4 shows a configuration example of a communication system according to a third embodiment. 10 illustrates a configuration example of a communication system according to a fourth embodiment. The 1st example of a structure of the packet transfer apparatus which concerns on this embodiment is shown. The 2nd example of a structure of the packet transfer apparatus which concerns on this embodiment is shown. The structural example of the information value quantification apparatus 14 which concerns on this embodiment is shown. An example of the operation of the information value digitizing device 14 will be shown. An example of a method for determining the value definition of the value calculation unit 42 is shown. The case where the transfer request frequency is used as the value definition of information is shown. The case where information dispersibility is used as the value definition of information is shown. The flow of information value processing when the information user 13 obtains information from the information provider 11 is shown. The 1st example of operation | movement of the information value quantification apparatus 14 which concerns on this embodiment is shown. An example of a transfer process when a resource is a band is shown. The 2nd example of operation | movement of the information value quantification apparatus 14 which concerns on this embodiment is shown. An example of a transfer process when a resource is a band is shown. A general example of information flowing through the network is shown.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The embodiments described below are examples of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the following embodiments. In the present specification and drawings, the same reference numerals denote the same components.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 shows an example of a communication system according to the first embodiment. In the communication system according to the present embodiment, an information provider 11 and an information user 13 are connected by a network 10. The network 10 is connected by a packet transfer device 12 as an information distribution control device. The packet transfer device 12 transmits transmission information in units of packets that are transmission units.

  The communication method according to the present embodiment includes a transmission procedure for transmitting transmission information, an information distribution control method according to the present invention for acquiring and transferring transmission information transmitted in the transmission procedure, and transmission information transferred in the information distribution control method. Receiving procedure. For example, in the transmission procedure, the information user 13 transmits a packet including the information request in the transmission information to the information provider 11, and the packet transfer device 12 transfers the packet from the information user 13. An information distribution control method, and a reception procedure in which the information provider 11 receives a packet transferred by the packet transfer device 12. Alternatively, a transmission procedure in which the information provider 11 transmits a packet including the requested information in the transmission information, an information distribution control method in which the packet transfer device 12 transfers a packet from the information provider 11, and use of the information A reception procedure for the person 13 to receive the packet transferred by the packet transfer device 12.

  The communication system according to the present embodiment is characterized by introducing an information value digitizing device 14. The information value digitizing device 14 acquires transmission information and converts the value information indicating the value inherent in the transmission information into a quantitative numerical value that can be used in the distribution of information. The value here considers not only the price for information, but also the degree of contribution that information gives to society and the degree that users want it. Details of the information value digitizing device 14 will be described later.

  The communication system according to the present embodiment uses the information value digitizing device 14 that digitizes the value of transmission information throughout the communication system. For example, the information value digitizing device 14 is connected to the packet transfer device 12, the information provider 11 and the information user 13 through a network. In the network 10, the information value digitizing device 14 is used for transferring and discarding information. In addition, a value that is quantified is used when information provider 11 sends information provided as transmission information. Further, the information user 13 uses the value of the information when sending a request to the information provider 11 as transmission information. As described above, conventionally, the value of information is not taken into consideration, but in the present invention, the value of information itself is introduced into the distribution of information by introducing the information value digitizing device 14.

  The information value digitizing device 14 extracts predetermined value information from the transmission information and digitizes the value information. There are two methods for quantifying the value information depending on the type of the value information. The type of value information may be a universal value or a variable value. Whether it is a universal value or a variable value depends on the value attribute described later.

In the case of universal value, the value value is uniquely determined for the information, and the same value is returned for the same information. FIG. 2 shows an outline of the operation of the information value digitizing device 14 when the value information has universal value. This is used when the inherent nature of information is treated as value.
In the case of variable value, the value is quantified from the transmission information and external factors. FIG. 3 shows an outline of the operation of the information value digitizing device 14 when the value information has variable value. In the case of variable value, the value is not uniquely determined for the transmission information, and the value varies depending on external factors. External factors include time and place, trends of users, providers, and network administrators.

  The present invention is necessary when the demand for the network 10 increases and the information flowing wastes resources. In particular, when the network 10 is congested, the value of transmission information that can be enjoyed by users of the network can be maximized. For example, when congested information is discarded, it can be discarded in consideration of the value of the information. Thus, the present invention performs network control using the value of information flowing through the network. As a result, it is possible to maximize the value that can be enjoyed by the users and businesses using the network 10.

(Embodiment 2)
FIG. 4 shows a configuration example of a communication system according to the second embodiment. The communication system according to Embodiment 2 shows a configuration example in the case where transmission information flowing in the network 10 is applied to the information value digitizing device 14. The packet transfer device 12 uses the information value digitizing device 14 to digitize value information included in transmission information flowing in the network 10 and uses it for priority control of packets to be transferred. For example, the allocated bandwidth of a high-value packet is increased, or a high-value packet is transmitted to a link (route) destination with a small delay or hop count. Conversely, the allocated bandwidth of a low-value packet is reduced, or a low-value packet is sent to a link (route) destination having a relatively large delay or hop count. Also, when the network is congested and discards the packet, the low-value packet is discarded.

(Embodiment 3)
FIG. 5 shows a configuration example of a communication system according to the third embodiment. The communication system according to the third embodiment shows a configuration example when the information provider 11 uses the information value digitizing device 14. The information provider 11 uses the information distribution control device having the same function as the packet transfer device 12 described above to transfer the value information included in the transmission information provided to the information user 13 to the information value quantification device 14. It is digitized and used to prioritize and change the content of transmission. For example, it includes changing the bit rate of video content according to value, switching to highly popular content, and the like.

(Embodiment 4)
FIG. 6 shows a configuration example of a communication system according to the fourth embodiment. The communication system according to the fourth embodiment shows a configuration example of a communication system when the information user 13 uses the information value digitizing device 14. When the information user 13 sends a request to obtain information to the information provider 11, the information user 13 uses the information distribution control device having the same function as the above-described packet transfer device 12 to send the transmission information as a request. The value is digitized by the value digitizing device 14 and used for changing the priority order of requests and the contents of requests.

(Embodiment 5)
FIG. 7 shows a first example of the configuration of the packet transfer apparatus according to the present embodiment. The packet transfer apparatus 12 according to the present embodiment includes a reception unit 21, a packet acquisition unit 22, a control processing unit 23, and a transmission unit 24. The receiving unit 21 receives the packet. The packet acquisition unit 22 acquires transmission information for each packet as a transmission information acquisition unit. For example, a packet including an information request from the information user 13 is acquired. Then, the packet acquisition unit 22 outputs the packet to the control processing unit 23 and transmits the transmission information included in the packet to the information value digitizing device 14. The control processing unit 23 transfers the packet so that the sum of the values quantified by the information value digitizing device 14 is maximized. For example, a value obtained by digitizing the value information is acquired from the information value digitizing device 14, and it is determined whether or not to transfer the packet to the transmission unit 24 according to this value.

  The packet acquisition unit 22 may further include a value information extraction function for acquiring predetermined value information from the transmission information. In this case, the packet acquisition unit 22 transmits the acquired value information to the information value digitizing device 14. Moreover, although the packet acquisition part 22 demonstrated the example which acquires transmission information for every packet, it is not limited to this. For example, transmission information may be acquired for each server, or transmission information may be acquired for each channel such as a frequency.

  In addition to the value information, the packet acquisition unit 22 may have a function of acquiring additional information of a consumed band from the transmission information. In this case, the control processing unit 23 uses the value obtained by digitizing the value information from the information value digitizing device 14 and the additional information of the band to determine whether or not to transmit the transmission information to the transmission unit 24.

  In the present embodiment, the example in which the information value digitizing device 14 is used when the packet transfer device 12 described in the second embodiment transfers a packet has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the information value digitizing apparatus 14 according to the present embodiment may be used when transmitting the transmission information of the third or fourth embodiment.

(Embodiment 6)

  FIG. 8 shows a second example of the configuration of the packet transfer apparatus according to the present embodiment. The packet transfer apparatus 12 according to the present embodiment further includes a transmission information storage unit 25 in addition to the packet transfer apparatus according to the fifth embodiment. The transmission information storage unit 25 has the same capacity as or more than the transmission unit 24. When a packet overflows from the transmission unit 24, the packet is temporarily stored in the transmission information storage unit 25.

  Thereafter, the packet arriving at the receiving unit 21 is stored in the transmission information storage unit 25. When the packet overflows from the transmission information storage unit 25, the control processing unit 23 selects a packet to be discarded so that the value in the transmission information storage unit 25 is maximized.

  When the transmission unit 24 becomes empty, the contents of the transmission information storage unit 25 are transferred to the transmission unit 24. As described above, when the transmission unit 24 has a vacancy, the packets acquired by the packet acquisition unit 22 are sequentially transmitted to the transmission unit 24. On the other hand, if there is no vacancy in the transmission unit 24, the transmission information storage unit 25 stores the packet, and the control processing unit 23 discards the value information from the information value digitizing device 14 based on the value. Make a decision.

  In the present embodiment, the example in which the information value digitizing device 14 is used when the packet transfer device 12 described in the second embodiment transfers a packet has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the information value digitizing apparatus 14 according to the present embodiment may be used when transmitting the transmission information of the third or fourth embodiment.

(Embodiment 7)
FIG. 9 shows a configuration example of the information value digitizing apparatus 14 according to the present embodiment. In this embodiment, an example in which the information value digitizing device 14 is used when the packet transfer device 12 described in the second embodiment transfers a packet will be described.

  The information value quantification apparatus 14 includes a value information extraction unit 41 and a value calculation unit 42. The transmission information issued from the information source is sent to the value calculation unit 42 via the value information extraction unit 41 and delivered to the control processing unit 23 of the packet transfer apparatus 12. In this embodiment, the information source is the packet acquisition unit 22 of the packet transfer device 12.

  The value information extraction unit 41 extracts the value of transmission information from the information source. The extracted value information is sent to the value calculation unit 42. The value calculation unit 42 quantifies the value indicated by the value information included in the transmission information acquired by the packet acquisition unit 22. The numerical value thus obtained is sent to the control processing unit 23. The control processing unit 23 performs information distribution control. Note that the value calculation unit 42 may perform the control method selection determination of the control processing unit 23.

  FIG. 10 shows an example of the operation of the information value digitizing device 14. The value information extraction unit 41 extracts value information from the transmission information (S411). At this time. The value information extraction unit 41 may extract the value information after selecting the transmission information to be transmitted / received based on the value from the transmission information.

The extraction of the value information by the value information extraction unit 41 is performed as follows, for example.
(1) Value information is defined before information is transmitted and received, and the value information determined by this definition is included in the transmission information. The value information is described in a header, for example. This value information is extracted.
(2) Extract IP address, URL information, etc. as value information from header information such as an IP header. Thereby, all the information from a certain server can be given the same value, and the information transmitted through a certain channel can be given the same value.
(3) Analyzing the payload and extracting necessary value information. For example, a predetermined keyword is extracted.
(4) Value information of desired information is obtained by exchanging control signals such as signaling. In this case, the control signal is acquired as transmission information, and value information is extracted from the control signal.

Depending on the content of the value information, one of the above may be used, or two or more of the above may be combined. In addition to the value information extracted from the transmission information, a processing result obtained by processing the transmission information by the packet transfer device 12 may be extracted as the value information. The value information in this case can be considered as follows.
(5) Frequency of transfer processing requests When the frequency of transfer processing requests for packets received by the packet transfer device 12 is compared, and the frequency of transfer processing requests is ranked first, second, and third, this order is Extract as value information.
(6) Freshness Freshness information such as the time when the information is generated is compared, and the comparison result is extracted as value information. In this case, it is treated as high value in order from new information.
(7) Reliability The reliability is determined using the information transmission source and the transmission destination or any one of them, and this reliability is extracted as value information.
(8) Information amount The information amount (entropy) of transmission information is calculated, and the information amount that is the calculation result is extracted as value information. In this case, the higher the amount of information, the higher the value.
In addition to the above, various methods can be applied.

  Next, the value calculation unit 42 determines a value definition to be applied to the extracted value information (S412). The value definition represents the contents of value information. For example, when the transfer request frequency is third, “transfer request frequency” is the value definition, and the value information is “3”.

  Next, the value calculation unit 42 determines the calculation method of the value information (S413) and digitizes the value information. There are cases where value information has a radix property and an ordinal property. These properties of value information are determined by the value definition. Therefore, in determining the calculation method of value information, prepare a table that defines whether the value definition has a radix property or an ordinal property, and determine the property of the value information by referring to the table. The calculation method of different value information is determined according to the determination result.

  Next, the control processing unit 23 determines an NW control method corresponding to the value information (S414). The value definition and the flow of the network control method may be defined in advance of processing, or part or all of them may be processed in real time.

  FIG. 11 shows an example of a value definition determination method of the value calculation unit 42. When defining the value of information, it is converted to a radix value definition by the following procedure. This allows cardinal handling between different value definitions.

  First, a value definition of value information is selected (S421). For example, when information indicating the transfer request frequency of information is extracted from the header information as value information, the value definition “transfer request frequency” is selected.

  Next, it is classified into a value definition having a radix property and a value definition having an ordinal property (S422). For example, a table that defines which property is defined for each value definition is prepared, and classification is performed by referring to this table.

  If the value definition has a radix property, it is converted into an ordinal value definition (S423). For example, ordinal numerical values are obtained by comparing the value information with each other and determining the rank of the value. Thereafter, a radix value determined by the determined rank is set, and conversion from the ordinal value definition to the radix value definition is performed (S424). And the base value which digitized value information is determined (S425).

  On the other hand, if the value definition of the information has ordinal properties, a base value is set according to the rank of the ordinal value information, and conversion from the ordinal value definition to the base value definition is performed (S424). Thereby, the base value which digitized value information is determined (S425).

  As an example, FIG. 12 shows a case where the transfer request frequency is used as the value definition of information. As shown in FIG. 12A, an example is shown in which the transmission request frequencies for transmission information A, B, C, and D are second, fourth, first, and third, respectively. Here, a request having a high transfer request frequency is defined as having a high value. In this case, since the value definition “transfer request frequency” has ordinal properties, the ordinal value of the value information is determined as it is.

  As shown in FIG. 12B, when the ordinal values of the value information are 1, 2, 3, and 4, conversion is performed assuming that 20, 10, 5, and 1 are given as the base values of the value information, respectively. Define the table. The value information is digitized with reference to this predetermined conversion table. For example, when the ordinal value is 1, the value information is digitized into a base value “20”. As a result, as shown in FIG. 12 (c), for the transmission information A, B, C, and D, the base values of the value information are 10, 1, 20, and 20 from the conversion table of FIG. 5 is derived.

  FIG. 13 shows a case where information dispersibility is used as the value definition of information. As shown in FIG. 13A, for the transmission information A, B, C, and D, the dispersibility of information is defined by the distance between the information provider 11 and the information user 13 shown in FIG. Examples of cases where the distance is 10 km, 1 km, 100 m, and 300 m are shown. Here, a case where information dispersibility is low, that is, a case where the distance is small is defined as a high value. In this case, since the value definition “dispersibility of information” has a radix property, the radix value represented by the distance is converted into an ordinal value. In this example, for the information A, B, C, and D, the ordinal values of the value information are converted to 4, 3, 1, and 2, respectively.

  As shown in FIG. 13B, when the ordinal values of the value information are 1, 2, 3, and 4, the conversion table is assumed to be given as the information base values of 10, 5, 2, and 1, respectively. Define. The value information is digitized with reference to this predetermined conversion table. As a result, as shown in FIG. 13C, for the information A, B, C, and D, the base values in the value definition of the information are derived as 1, 2, 10, and 5 from the conversion table, respectively. Although an example in which the base value is an integer is shown here, a decimal number may be used.

  The information distribution control based on the value of the transmission information shown in FIG. 9 can be operated with various time constants by a combination of both static and real time. Information provision to the value information extraction unit 41 may be given by a measurement result from an external device such as the packet transfer device 12.

  The conversion from the ordinal value of the information value to the radix value shown in FIGS. 12 and 13 can be defined by an integer, a decimal, or a combination of both. Further, the base value of the information value derived from different value definitions may be re-derived by using a plurality of calculation formulas such as addition and subtraction.

FIG. 14 shows a flow of information value processing when the information user 13 obtains information from the information provider 11.
The information user 13 sends a request to the information provider 11 to receive desired information. The information provider 11 adds the value information of the requested information, and then sends the information to the packet transfer apparatus (reference numeral 12 in FIG. 1). Transmission information is output to the information value digitizing device 14 from the packet transfer device (reference numeral 12 in FIG. 1).

  The value information extraction unit 41 of the information value quantification apparatus 14 extracts value information and sends the extracted value information to the value calculation unit 42. The value calculation unit 42 calculates the information value, and transmits a numerical value that is a result of quantifying the value information to the control processing unit 23. Here, the value calculation unit 42 may determine a control method and transmit an information control execution instruction to the control processing unit 23.

  Thereafter, in the control processing unit 23 that has received the transmission of information, desired information distribution control is performed, and transmission information is transmitted to the information user 13.

(Embodiment 8)
In the information value digitizing device 14, it is preferable to decompose the value definition into a plurality of value attributes. The value attribute is an attribute that constitutes value. For example, “immediateness”, “reliability”, “amount of information”, “desirability”, “genericity”, “price”, “appearance frequency”, “information Consumption ”,“ use time ”, or“ dispersibility ”. The value attribute is determined by the value definition. For example, when the value definition is “transfer request frequency”, the value attribute is “appearance frequency”. The value attribute is preferably set arbitrarily according to the system and value definition.

FIG. 15 shows a first example of the operation of the information value digitizing apparatus 14 according to this embodiment.
The value information quantified for each value definition is further quantified for each value attribute. In this case, the sum of the values of the value information quantified for each value attribute is calculated, and the value information for each value attribute is integrated into a single numerical value. Each value attribute value can be handled in the same manner, and may be added.

  In the example of FIG. 15, as a result of integration for each value attribute, the base value of the value information that is the value attribute “freshness” is 20, the base value of the value information that is the value attribute “reliability” is 50, and the value attribute The base value of the value information that is “information amount” is 10, and the base value of the value information that is the value attribute “popularity” is 80. In this case, the numerical value “80” of the value information of the value attribute “popularity” having the maximum value is output. Whether the universal value or the variable value is used as the value used in the configuration of the seventh embodiment depends on the value attribute.

The value of the digitized transmission information is combined with the amount of resources used by the transmission information and used for control processing in the control processing unit 23 of the packet transfer apparatus 12. Here, resources indicate network bandwidth, power consumption, and the like.
FIG. 16 shows an example of control processing when the resource is a bandwidth. Transmission information I1 whose value information has a radix value of 20 and a band of 5, transmission information I2 whose value information has a radix value of 10 and a band of 7, and whose value information has a radix value of 50 and There is transmission information I3 whose bandwidth is 8, and transmission information I4 whose value information has a base value of 55 and whose bandwidth is 15, and the bandwidth restriction is 20. In this case, the transmission information I4 55 is the highest as the value of the information, but the sum of the distributed information values is maximized by allocating a band to the three transmission information of the transmission information I1, the transmission information I2, and the transmission information I3. It will be the case. In this case, a band is allocated to three pieces of transmission information, that is, transmission information I1, transmission information I2, and transmission information I3 so that the total sum of values is maximized.

  This allocation method is generally known as a knapsack problem when the objective function is a value and the constraint is a bandwidth. Although it is difficult to obtain a strict optimal solution for the knapsack problem, it is practically possible to obtain an almost optimal solution by using dynamic programming or value per unit band. Thereby, the sum total of the value of the information distributed can be maximized.

  FIG. 17 shows a second example of the operation of the information value digitizing apparatus 14 according to this embodiment. If the value attributes are completely independent from each other, the value attributes cannot be compared, and the decomposed value attribute is used as it is. For example, the base value of the value information that is the value attribute “freshness” is 20, the base value of the value information that is the value attribute “reliability” is 50, and the base value of the value information that is the value attribute “information amount” Is 10 and the base value of the value information having the value attribute “popularity” is 80. In this case, all base values of the value information are output for each value attribute.

  The value of the information output as a numerical string is combined with the resource amount used by the information and used for control processing in the control processing unit 23 of the packet transfer apparatus 12. Specifically, the level of the base value is determined for each value attribute, and processing for preferentially transferring transmission information having a high base value within the common value attribute is performed for each value attribute.

  FIG. 18 shows an example of control processing when the resource is a band. Transmission information I1 whose value information is a radix value 20 and 10 with different value attributes and a band of 5, and transmission information I2 whose value information is a radix value 5 and 10 with different value attributes and a band of 7 And transmission information I3 whose value information has different base values 50 and 30 and a band of 8, and transmission information whose value information has base values 10 and 55 of different value attributes and a band of 15. There is information I4, and the bandwidth restriction is 20.

  In the second example of the operation of the information value digitizing device 14, since it is not possible to compare between value attributes, the bandwidth is divided for each value attribute, and information is assigned so that the sum of the value attribute values is maximized. In the example shown in the figure, transmission information I3 is assigned as the first value attribute, transmission information I1 and transmission information I2 are assigned as the second value attribute, and the sum of the values within the value attribute is maximized. In this method, there is a possibility that another transmission information is allocated to the surplus bandwidth. Therefore, the surplus bandwidth is further divided equally by value attributes and information is allocated. Repeat until there is no more information to assign.

  The assignment to each value attribute can be given as a solution to the knapsack problem as in the first example of the operation of the information value digitizing device 14 described above. Therefore, it can be realized by preparing the methods shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 by the number of value attributes.

  Although the case where the packet transfer device 12 and the information value digitizing device 14 are separate devices has been described above, this is not restrictive. For example, the information value digitizing device 14 may be incorporated in the packet transfer device 12. In this case, the packet transfer apparatus 12 includes a value information extraction unit 41 and a value calculation unit 42 in addition to the reception unit 21, the packet acquisition unit 22, the control processing unit 23, and the transmission unit 24.

  Further, the packet acquisition unit 22, the control processing unit 23, the value information extraction unit 41, and the value calculation unit 42 can be realized by a computer and a program, and the program can be recorded on a recording medium or provided through a network. is there.

  The present invention can be applied to the information communication industry.

10: Network 11: Information provider 12: Packet transfer device 13: Information user 14: Information value digitizing device 21: Reception unit 22: Packet acquisition unit 23: Control processing unit 24: Transmission unit 25: Transmission information storage Unit 31: Value information extraction unit 41: Value information extraction unit 42: Value calculation unit

Claims (5)

A value information extraction unit that extracts value information indicating the value of the transmission information from the transmission information;
A value calculation unit that determines the rank of the value by comparing the value information extracted by the value information extraction unit with each other, and determines a numerical value determined by the determined rank as a value indicated by the value information;
Equipped with a,
The value calculation unit
The value definition representing the content of the value information is referred to a table that defines whether the value definition has a radix property or an ordinal property, and the value definition of the value information has a radix property or an ordinal property. Determine whether
When the value definition of the value information is radix, the value information is compared with each other to determine the rank of the value, and a numerical value determined by the determined rank is determined as the value indicated by the value information. ,
When the value definition of the value information is ordinal, a numerical value determined by the value information extracted by the value information extraction unit is determined as a value indicated by the value information.
An information value digitizing device characterized by that . A transmission device for transmitting the transmission information;
The information value quantification apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the value of the transmission information transmitted by the transmission apparatus is determined .
A transfer device that transfers the transmission information based on the value determined by the information value digitizing device;
A receiving device for receiving the transmission information transferred by the transfer device;
A communication system comprising: Value information extraction procedure for extracting value information indicating the value of transmission information from the transmission information;
A value calculation procedure for determining the rank of the value by comparing the value information extracted in the value information extraction procedure with each other, and determining a numerical value determined by the determined rank as a value indicated by the value information;
I have a,
In the value calculation procedure,
The value definition representing the content of the value information is referred to a table that defines whether the value definition has a radix property or an ordinal property, and the value definition of the value information has a radix property or an ordinal property. Determine whether
When the value definition of the value information is radix, the value information is compared with each other to determine the rank of the value, and a numerical value determined by the determined rank is determined as the value indicated by the value information. ,
When the value definition of the value information is ordinal, a numerical value determined by the value information extracted in the value information extraction procedure is determined as a value indicated by the value information.
Information value quantification method characterized by this . A transmission procedure for transmitting the transmission information;
The information value quantification method according to claim 3 , wherein the value of the transmission information transmitted in the transmission procedure is determined .
A transfer procedure for transferring the transmission information based on the value determined by the information value quantification method;
A reception procedure for receiving the transmission information transferred in the transfer procedure;
A communication method comprising: A program for causing a computer to execute the value information extraction procedure and the value calculation procedure according to claim 3 .

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