MXPA97006091A - Information services provision and management[sg45624 ] - Google Patents

Abstract

A service delivery system for use in providing information services in one or more communication networks has a software infrastructure divided into domain (101, 103, 104, 106). Each domain has an intelligent software agent (102, 107, 109, 110) and this community of agents is based on a computing environment represented in each domain per DPE core (105). The agent community cooperates to provide service management functionality and functionality to a user. At least one of the agents (102, 107, 109, 110) is reconfigurable to change the functionality of the system makes it possible. The dereconfiguration capability is based on the use of the plurality of reusable software modules, the recombination agent by selecting a new combination of modules. The software modules themselves incorporate rules, or policies, which determine the stages of the process offered by the modules in the elapsed time. These policies are external to the modules and can be loaded in the elapsed time, allowing dynamic modification for the functionality of the system. The system as a whole offers functionality associated with services of use, providing them and managing them and the capacity of reconfiguration allows them to offer different types of functionality in an efficient way. It also allows access control for functionality at different level with particularly good security against fraudulent use

Description

SUPPLY AND HANDLING OF INFORMATION SERVICES DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to the provision of a service by means of communication networks. There is particular application in aspects such as access control, presentation of services to users and management of those services. Increasing in the future, different types of services are likely to be offered in communications networks. For example, the increasing capacity of technology is enabling a future where a wide variety of multimedia services can be delivered to users over communication networks. These services can include simple voice telephony, multimedia conference among many users, home purchases and video on demand. Additionally, users may want such services that are supplied in a wide variety of types of terminals such as portable telephone, portable personal computer and domestic television set with a top box in the apparatus. These services come not only from the development of the telecommunications environment, including telephony and cable television, but also from previously separate environments, such as the computing environment. For example, there has been a major growth in computer network services, such as those available on the Internet. Collectively, all these services are mentioned here as information services. Although to date, (at least in the world of telephony) the operator of the communications network and the service provider (SP) have generally agreed, this is not essential. Another trend expected in the future is that, increasingly, the service provider will be separated from the network operator. As in the case of the Internet, several SP (sellers) can offer their services (products) on a common network. Indeed, there may be additional complexity involved in the fact that the "common network" must in fact consist of multiple networks connected together, managed by many different network providers. In circumstances where many different services, supplied by multiple vendors, are available on one, or multiple communication networks, there is an opportunity for service agents. The competitive advantage can be gained by such agents by offering customers better services and more effective access arrangements for these services. Another name for the service agent is a retail service seller.

In light of this accelerated complexity in the world of communications, with many different entities that are involved in exploiting a rapidly growing range of different services, there is a clear need to provide relatively sophisticated service, and / or systems management . According to a first aspect of the present invention, a service provision system was provided, to make the information services available by means of one or more network or network communications, in which the service delivery system comprises agents of intelligent software in a computing environment, whose agents cooperate to provide access to services for a user of the system, at least one of the agents is reconfigurable to modify the functionality of the system available to the user. By incorporating a reconfigurable software agent in this way, a service delivery system can have appropriately adapted access for users who have different roles and needs in relation to the system. A user in this context must, for example, be a customer, who needs to be able to request or use the service, a service provider that needs to correct parameters of a service, or a retail seller who needs to add new service to a portfolio . In addition, a customer does not need to be an entity who actually uses a service, but it could be responsible to have the supply and payment for a service, which some time it really uses. Then, again, the user must be (or represent) another piece of equipment instead of being (or representing) a person. An example of how system functionality should need to be modified is where a system user can identify whether they are a customer, a service provider or a retail seller of the service. A client may need to be able to request the use of a service, which the role of the service provider would not need, but the system may generally need to be able to obstruct the client for security reasons, at least some of the functionality available for a service or network provider. Therefore, the functionality of the system should need to include fast services for the client but not for the network provider and should need to apply different certification verifications for the service provider and for the client. It is recognized that computing infrastructures in telecommunications can become extremely complex and this could potentially limit management capacity, extension capacity, capacity for increase and strength. The approach exploited in the embodiments of the present invention, which provide simplicity in the infrastructure, is that of the smart agent technology, the basis of which is described in "Distributed Artifical Intelligence", ed. Huhns M.N., Pitman, London 1987. An intelligent agent in this context can be broadly described as an entity based on software, which acts on behalf of another entity. It must consist of updatable data, which should only be locally important and usually some kind of functionality to make negotiation or decision. A community of agents can then perform the negotiation tasks among themselves to decide a form on behalf of multiple entities in a distributed system. The service delivery system should preferably be structured into important domains for different entities in the system. For example, there may be at least one domain related to the client, based on a terminal used by the client for access to the system and service provider / domain of the retail provider. Alternatively, there may be separate domains for the service provider and the retailer. In the embodiments of the present invention, the software agents are not based on respective domains. A reconfigurable agent must be properly based in a retail domain of the service, giving access to the service and the infrastructure related to the service on behalf of the seller at retail of the service. The "portfolio" of the available configurations should preferably include a configuration to be used by a user, who does not describe or can not describe an identity for the system. Such a configuration would generally include the ease of payment, whether real or guaranteed in some form, upfront payment of a service that is provided. A reconfigurable software agent may comprise, or have access to a plurality of software modules, reconfiguration capability that is provided at least in part by the agent taking selected sets of the software modules. Each software module probably consists of an executable code, or a code that is to be interpreted, which the agent requests and runs as a process. A selected set of software modules involved by the agent, thus providing the running time of the service delivery system, as determined by a particular agent configuration. Software modules are preferably available for more than one configuration of an agent, making it possible to build a service delivery system, which is adaptable while the reusable execution code. The system can also be designed in such a way that the improvements are relatively simple to make, for example, adding to, or modifying the sofware modules. Preferably, the functionality of at least some of the software modules provides service-independent building blocks (SIBBS) for services that are to be provided by the system. "Services" in this context mean information services that a client may want access through the system, such as Video on Demand. The service-dependent building blocks are then pieces of software that generally incorporate data and functionality, which provides support operations that a customer would need in addition to the services themselves. The examples would be a means of "help" or a means of "Charges to See". The SIBBS can be composed, in which it provides a means as a whole, or they can be even more generic in that they must provide, for example, a data reading operation, which is only part of the functionality needed to operate a medium of "Charges to See".

The use of SIBBS allows the system to be particularly easy to improve, for example, in the light of new services that become advantageous. Many users will also require the provision of the service to confer an optimum level of effectiveness, performance and quality regardless of their choice of terminal type or configuration, or network connection. The services can be provided by more than one communications network and where a plurality of networks is involved, they can be of different types, such as mobile and fixed. The embodiments of the present invention can be used to optimize the delivery of the service over different network platforms, such as mobile cellular radio or fixed point connection despite different restrictions, such as restricted bandwidth in mobile networks. This can be done by providing a type of software module (in addition to SIBBS) whose functionality provides adaptation of the functionality of the service delivery system, for example, to meet the restriction or user specific operation requirement. In this way, the service delivery system can, for example, respond appropriately if a user is entering the system by means of a telephone or a computer terminal, or in accordance with the operating system of a user terminal. Alternatively, an adaptation module, or "adapter", should act as a filter or translator of system information provided to the user, such that, for example, the technical data is filtered out of the information provided to a non-technical user. An adapter can also create the system to respond appropriately, as long as the service is required and from which the service provider, in light of the operational restrictions of the provider or the retail seller of the service. Again, for example, if there is a choice of network provider, there may be operational restrictions associated with a particular network aspect. Software modules "adapters" of this type would contribute in this way with processes to establish the appropriate interface and protocols. The adapter must contain either standards, interfaces and protocols as data, or it must contain means to locate them. As well as providing adaptation for operational restrictions, adapters can provide other related functionality. For example, an adapter must be provided, which adapts the language in which a service is provided for a foreign user. The adapters are not essential but they are useful in combination with the SIBB. If the adapters are not provided, an alternative would be to build their functionality in the SIBBs. This, however, would probably increase the number of SIBB significantly, which can be disadvantageous in that the complexity is also increased in the system. Two types of software modules are described in the above as potentially available for a reconfigurable agent; the SIBB and the adapters. A third type of software module, which must usually be provided to control the configuration process, is a coordinating module. This can be used for the selection of control and / or modification of the software modules for each configuration. In particular, this module must provide resolution to the conflict and / or prioritize the classification of conflicts in the functionality of the other modules in an agent configuration. According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a service delivery system for making the information services available by means of one or more communication networks, in which: (i) the service delivery system comprises the infrastructure of the software arranged in the domains, each domain provides functionality and data important for a respective aspect of the service provision, and each domain comprises an intelligent software agent; ii) information service and associated management functionality, can be provided for users through cooperative interaction between agents of different domains; and iii) at least one of the ware agents is provided with an available set of ware elements, each element comprises data independent of the service and functionality, but the elements of the combination set support specific services, such that the agent it may allow the provision of a first service by activation of a first combination of elements of the set and may allow the provision of a second different service by activation of a second different combination of elements of the set. "Allow" in this context must mean, for example, that the agent allows access to a service for a user of the service provision system. Alternatively, the agent must provide some functionality, which supports the service itself, such as billing or charge operation. The domains that represent the division of the infrastructure of the supply of the service in important areas for the various entities involved. Each domain will provide functionality, its important entity is required. For example, the user will not need to at least identify for themselves and the restrictions and accessories (for example, facsimile against a telephone) or their equipment that needs to be identified. This is done through the terminal domain. A service provider needs to be able to access the content of a service, for example, updated text, and must need to be able to bill for a service. This is done through a domain provider of the service. A retail seller of the service needs to be able to run a service in its own environment and therefore will need the ability to load / start a service and control the customer interface in terms of service quality and again, billing. This will be done through a domain of retail seller of the service. In practice, the domains of the retail seller of the service and the service provider must be the same domain, since the functionality required by the two papers must coincide. For example, if the service provider bills the customer or the retail seller of the service it will be the issue of the commercial arrangements between them on a case-by-case basis. The agents in the terminal and the domains of the service provider / retailer may cooperate in the use of the system, to give appropriate access to a user, for an information service or for the associated handling functionality.

There can be any number of domains while there are at least two. In practice, the number will probably remain low to avoid complexity. Usually it will be an agent in the domain of the seller to the service or equivalent, as well as or in place of other agents of the system, which is provided with the available set of ware elements. System agents can access the same set of ware elements, or a partially shared set. The ware clearly provides the basis of the necessary infrastructure in the service delivery systems according to the embodiments of the present invention, to implement measurable and deployable solutions. Different types of ware technology must be employed and there are several functional design approaches, which can be used. However, a common approach to the design and implementation of ware systems in this technical environment uses object-oriented ware technology. This is known and used by international standards bodies (for example, Open ware Foundation Object Management Group (OSF OMG), Open Systems Interconnection (OSI)). Reference should be made for example to "Object Managmenet Architecture Guide", Revision 2.0, Second Edition, September 1, 1992. OMG in reference: OMG TC Document 92.11.1. In general terms, the "objects" in this context, comprise software units which represent entities or concepts of the real world through a combination of data and functionality. The data is encapsulated as internal attributes of an object and the associated functionality is encapsulated as a method, which uses or operates by the attributes. Although an object can receive a message from another object, requesting that it perform a method on its attributes, which can result in the return of the data, the attributes themselves are not directly sensed by external objects. Such high degrees of encapsulation are not readily available in previous software technologies. The embodiments of the present invention are advantageous based on object-oriented technology. For example, in the embodiments according to the present invention, the software agents can each consist of a set of objects and a way in which an agent can achieve the reconfiguration capability, then it must change objects of its set, since either by altering individual objects or by adding, subtracting or replacing objects in the set.

Each software module mentioned in the above, whether a SIBB, an adapter or a coordinator, can be an object. This can offer a particularly flexible way to achieve reconfiguration. It is possible to control the behavior of an object in response to circumstances by the use of rules expressed as policies. Reconfiguration can be achieved by modifying or replacing the policies of the objects in an agent. In the embodiments of the present invention, particularly the flexible use of policies is that of designing policies to be external to the important object or objects, only that it is loaded at the object's shift time. A coordinate module in an agent can control not only the software module set in an agent configuration, such as SIBBs and adapters, but they can also control a set of external policies available to them. Alternatively, an object must self-configure, looking for the correct policy or policies, once an important context has been established. By designing a service delivery system according to one embodiment of the present invention, there can be many advantages. One of these is security against unauthorized access. If the reconfigurable agent includes the authentication capability, the access functionality simply must not exist until the authentication step has been completed. This is achieved by using an initial configuration of the agent, which includes an authentication process, but no access capability. The access capability is only carried in existence in a later post-authentication configuration of the agent. Other potential benefits of access provisions for an individual user should include the following: - a single point of contact for services from different vendors; easy request and use of the services of different vendors; - consistent presentation of the services through the different vendors; - integrated accounting and charge for a set of service provided by multiple vendors; - security of unauthorized request and use of services; - privacy of unauthorized access for the use of the service and information on the content of the service. The client's base for information services is particularly broad. Initially, it is anticipated that it is particularly business, such as multinational corporations that have a range of fixed and mobile communications needs, including email, voice and video conferencing. However, due to the growing installation of high capacity transmission links in domestic properties for entertainment services and the growth of personal mobility, it is expected that the base client will be extended to the domestic market. The embodiments of the present invention may allow the information service providers to consequently increase the infrastructure of the management of their services. From the perspective of the companies involved in satisfying the total requirements of the users, the main challenges involved in designing an adequate infrastructure are probably better. A potential starting point would clearly be the provision of an architecture (from high level design to low level implementation) that can technically and economically support such information services. The software and hardware resources of the computing structure would be components that enable the architecture of the information service. One aspect of the computing infrastructure is the processing environment and a known environment of suitable type for use in the embodiments of the present invention is the distributed processing environment (DPE), which allows multiple processes to be run using "nodes" of multiple computers. The DPE maintains a view of the multiple nodes and processes and handles the message that passes between the nodes and objects, providing a common language for the export of the interfaces for different objects that reside in different nodes. That is, it helps with aspects with software and hardware location, transparency and accessories for the supply of expandable and deployable solutions. The standards for DPE already exist and are being extended. A node in this context must be conveniently provided by a computer with processors and memory, which is capable of running an operating system, a distributed processing platform, and compatible objects executed as processes in the computer. To be commercially viable, it is advantageous that the information services infrastructure respond quickly and at low cost, and attractive features would be: - Flexible: to optimize the use of resources by dynamic deployment and execution of software in the infrastructure of the hardware; - Extendable: to add and develop functionality and capacity for software and hardware; - Ability to increase: to be able with increasing numbers and dispersion of users and computing resources; - Reusable: to maximize the software and the reusable hardware and minimize the cost of the extension and increase of the architecture; - Adaptable: to be able to change, the heterogeneous resources inside and connected to the infrastructure; - Management capacity: to exercise the necessary control over the operation and planned change in the infrastructure; - Strong: that is tolerant to failure and easily recoverable in the case of failure. The architectures according to the embodiments of the present invention can provide at least some and may be able to provide all of these features. Another advantageous feature would be that the communication network (or networks) by itself is capable of transmitting a wide range of services. There are network technologies, which are capable of supporting the provision of multiple services and some examples of these are based on asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) technologies. A common feature of such networks is that they can use a range of flexibility of transmission rates by choosing the one that is most appropriate for the service that is provided. The retail sale of the future information service must be offered through a telecommunications information network architecture that brings together elements of the multiple service network and DPE technologies mentioned. An example of such an architecture is that it is defined by the TINA Consortium. Reference should be made to "Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture", Oshisanwo a., Boyd T., Proc. 4th IEEE Conf. Telecommunications, IEEE, London 1993. As mentioned in the above, an important aspect of the retail server's computing infrastructure is the implementation of the access provision for users. In accordance with the embodiments of the present invention, the implementation of specific access provisions provided by the retailer can confer many capabilities for the benefit of the users. These capabilities allow users to: request from the seller at retail the range and specifications of the services sold; - negotiate a subscription for a service for the benefit of the end users; - view of the current details of the existing service subscription, such as usage permits; - view historical details of existing subscriptions, such as usage history and accumulated charges; - enter a financial transaction to pay the subscription accounts; - request assistance in any aspect of the retail environment; provide your identity and support the authentication procedure; - view and change of personal users for each subscribed service. The service delivery capabilities can all be implemented using intelligent software agent technology.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying Figures in which: Figure 1 schematically shows elements of a service delivery system, according to an embodiment of the present invention for provide services to users through communication networks; Figure 2 shows different configurations, which must be taken by an access agent in a system as shown in Figure 1; Figure 3 schematically shows object types, which an intelligent software agent of the system of Figure 1 should consist of; Figure 4 shows a specific set of objects to be used in a "Sales Agent" configuration of an intelligent software agent of the system of Figure 1; Figure 5 shows a flow diagram of the process steps in the use of the system of Figure 1 to establish an initial service session; Figure 6 shows the allowed transitions between the configurations of the agent in use of a system as shown in Figure 1; Figure 7 shows a flowchart of the process steps in use of the system of Figure 1 to respond to a session of the incoming service; Figures 8a, 8b and 8c show information, computer engineering representations of a system architecture for use in the design of embodiments of the present invention; Figure 9 shows the structure of an important DPE for Figure 8; Figure 10 shows a computational view of the concept of access and session by means of objects, in the use of the modalities of the present invention; and Figure 11 shows a hardware view primarily of platform for use in the embodiments of the present invention.

TECHNICAL CONTEXT As mentioned in the above, a suitable technical context for the embodiments of the present invention would be an information network architecture, of the type defined by the Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture Consortium (TINA-C). Such architecture is based on the principles of Open Distributed Processing (ODP) of object orientation and distribution, applied to a telecommunications system design using objects handled by the Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) and Intelligent Network (IN) concepts for the management and control of the service.

In a TINA-C architecture, there are three sets of concepts, a logical structure architecture, a service architecture and a management architecture. The logical structure architecture defines the concepts and principles for the design of object-oriented software that works in a distributed environment. Here, a traditional layered computer architecture is defined with computers and computer networks at the bottom, a distributed processing environment (DPE) in the middle and software application (object oriented) at the top. The application software is by itself submitted to the organization in TINA-C. The service architecture defines basic object types and rules for use that can be used to design the software application that provides services. A service is defined as a significant set of capabilities provided to a user. A service can have many users in different roles. For example, the end user is the person who uses the service for its intended function, the service manager manages the service and the network provider provides and manages the implicit resources required by a service. The notion of service in TINA-C applies to all applications that are accessible to users, including the management of services. The service architecture contains a suitable call model for a wide range of service types. The management architecture defines the types of objects and rules for their use, which can be used to design the software application to manage services, networks and computer systems. The OMG-type (known) DPE core provides communications between objects, provides dynamic links by means of a commercial function and provides notification to the servers to give management information (such as faults, operation and the like). It provides generic "Application Programming Interfaces" (API) and the message that passes to the accessories. The entire software application is supposed to run on a DPE. The available documentation, in addition to the reference given in the above, includes a set of supplies, such as "0-0 Modeling and Design," by J. Rumbaugh et al, published by Prentice Hall in 1991, "Overall Architecture" TINA- C Deliverable 1994 by M. Chapman et al and "Guidelines for the Definition of Managed Objects", published in "The Management of Telecommunications Networks" edited by R Smith et al and published by Ellis-Horwood in 1992.

System Design Techniques With reference to Figure 8, to allow the design of the system according to the TINA-C architecture, three ODP views can be selected, these are as follows: Information: a point of view in a system that focuses on the semantics of information and information processing activities in the system. . Computing: a point of view about a system that focuses on distributable software objects and their interactions. Engineering: a point of view in a system that focuses on the deployment and distribution aspect of the system and on the infrastructure to support the distribution. For each of these, a set of modeling concepts are defined, providing a vocabulary that can be used to specify a system in the considered point of view. The concepts of information modeling shown in Figure 8a provide the structure for information specifications that describe the 801 types, 802 of information used in a system and those that are made in the information. A specification of the information describes the semantics of the domain of the problem that the application of the software is being designed, for example in a bank scenario, an information model can contain objects such as account, debt, credit and balance and relationships such as debts more credits equal to the balance. The fundamental concepts of modeling information are objects, which are information that carries entities, object types 801, 802, that classify objects and define the characteristics of an object in terms of attributes and operations that can be performed on objects and objects. 803 relations that define links between and aggregations of objects. Among the TINA-C notation chosen for information specifications, is the ISO / IEC and the recommended ITU-T GDMO (Guides for the Definition of Managed Objects) with GRM (General Relation Model). The GDMO is used extensively in the TMN community to model the information and thus allow TINA-C to directly reuse this work. The UNWTO annotation of Rumbaugh (Tool for Handling the Object) (described in "Object-Oriented Modeling and Design", by Rumbaugh et al, published by Prentice-Hall in 1991) is used for the graphical presentation of information specifications.

The concepts of computational modeling shown in Figure 8b provide the structure for computational specifications. A computational specification described distributed telecommunications applications in terms of computational objects 805 that interact with each other. The computational objects are defined without any knowledge of where the computational objects will eventually be displayed, that is, the distribution becomes transparent. This allows the specification of a software system that can tolerate the redeployment of the software on different nodes of a network without affecting the specification. The fundamental concepts of computational modeling are objects 805 and interfaces 806, 807. Objects are the units of programming and encapsulation. The objects interact with each other by sending and receiving information to, and from, the interfaces. An object can provide many interfaces, either of the same types or of different types. There are two forms of interface that an object can offer or use: the operational interface 806 and the current interface 807.

An operational interface 806 is one that has defined the operations that allow the functions of an 809 object that it offers (server) to be called by other objects (client) . An operation can have arguments and can return results. A current interface 807 is one without operations (i.e., no notion of the input / output parameters, requests, results, or notifications). The establishment of a current between the current interfaces 807 allows the passage of other structured information such as video bit streams or speech. A notation which must be chosen for the computational specifications is TINA-C ODL (Language of Definition of the Object), which is an improvement of OMG IDL (Interface Definition Language of the Object Management Group). TINA-C has extended OMG IDL to allow the definition of the object that has multiple interfaces and for the definition of the current interfaces. The concepts of engineering modeling in Figure 8c provide the structure for the engineering specifications. An engineering specification describes the view in deployment of a system in terms of which computational objects 805, 809 are placed on which computing node 810. It also defines the infrastructure to allow objects to be executed and communicated with each other.

DPE v Hardware context With reference to Figure 9, the aspects of the infrastructure of the engineering model will define the Distributed Processing Environment (DPE). As mentioned in the above, the DPE is an infrastructure (of known type) that supports the interactions of computational objects. The DPE protects applications of programs of heterogeneous and distributed nature from the implicit environment and provides the mechanism that allows objects to interact without knowledge of computing nodes 810, are turned on. The DPE defines four entity types: DPe core 811, core transport network 901, fragments adapted from DPE 809 servers. The DPE core defines a core set of communications, storage and processing capabilities (eg, protocol stack) . This core set is assumed to be present in each node. The core transport network 901 is a communications network to which all DPE cores are linked to exchange messages to facilitate the interaction of the -object. It is defined to logically separate the computer network from a transport network, which is used for the transmission of voice and video. The logical separation recognizes that the two networks may have different requirements on the quality of service. However, both can be implemented by the same physical network. The DPE adapter fragments are software modules linked to computational objects, which intercept the interactions on the objects and use the underlying core transport network 901 to establish the junction and to transmit and receive request messages and to and from remote objects . In practice, an interface for an object is designed and compiled. This generates an adapter fragment which will receive the messages that enter for the objects and select which operation will be requested through the interface. The DPE 809 servers provide infrastructure support. Two examples can be a merchant and a server in notification. A trader provides a run-time mechanism that allows objects to locate the interface of other objects. A notification server allows objects to emit notification (that is, significant events that occur during the duration of an object) to other objects . The objects that wish to receive notifications in the registrar during the run time with the notification server. With reference to Figure 11, the hardware seen from a system in which the modalities of the present invention must be constructed is based on a transport network 1100, which will carry for example voice and data service, provided by the service providers to users. The users will be connected to the network by different pieces of equipment 1101, 1102 of the customer premises equipment (CPE). The various parties involved in offering and carrying those services, such as the retail seller of the service, the service provider and the network provider, are also connected to computational nodes 801 to the transport network 1100. Smart software agents , for example a terminal agent 102 and a user agent 107, will be based either on the same nodes or nodes different from the computational nodes 801 connected to the transport network 1100. As shown in Figure 11 the terminal agent 102 and the user agent 107 are based on the same computational node 801. These agents are provided with data of various types, including for example user profiles in a user profile store 1103, which happens to share the computational node 801 with the user agent 107 and the terminal agent 102. Other stored data available by network means 1100 as shown, includes a policy data store 1104 and a management information data store 1105. The policy data store 1104, as further described in the following, allows the user access agent to reconfigure itself to change its response to the user's interactions. The handling information data store 1105 can provide information on the overall management with respect to the services. Each computational node 80 is provided with a DPE core 811 and therefore a protocol stack for use in accordance with the DPE principles.

Concepts of "Session" v "Access" The TINA-C systems make use of the concepts of "session" and the concepts "access". These are as follows. Session concepts define those objects and interfaces that are required to support the initiation of interaction with, and termination of services. Although services by their nature are different from each other, they have a common property in that they provide a context for relating activities. Such a context is called a Session. As a generic definition, the term "session represents a temporary period in which the activities are carried out for the purpose of achieving an objective." Three types of sessions have been identified: service session, user session and communications session. Service session is the individual activation of a service, it relates the users of the service together, so that they can interact with each other and share entities, such as documents or a board.A service session logically contains the logic of the service. The service session is computationally represented by a director of the service session.A director of the service session offers two types of operational interface.The first is a generic session control interface.This provides operations that allow users to join and leave a service For certain services you can also offer operations to suspend and summarize the complication in a service. The second type of interface will provide specific operations of the service and will be dictated by the capabilities offered by the logic of the service. The ability to suspend and summarize the complication in a service is an advantageous feature for some services. For example, consider a multimedia conference that occurs over several days. During the night, where the conference is not in use, it should be possible to free up expensive communication resources. The service session can keep the status close to the conference, such as the users and the resources involved. The maintenance of the state and the ability to suspend and summarize the complication would avoid the need to scroll down and recreate the service every day. A User session keeps the status close to the user's activities and the resources assigned for their complication in a service session. Examples of status maintained in a user session include the user's cumulative load, suspension and resume history, and the specific status of the service, such as the current page that is avoided in the distributed document that avoids the service, for example. When a user joins a service session, a user session is created. It is eliminated when you leave it. The service session maintains a link for the user sessions and thus provides a group oriented in the view. A Communication session is an oriented abstraction of the service of connections in the transport network. A communications vision keeps the state close to the connections of a particular service session, such as communication trajectories, endpoints and quality of service characteristics. A communications session is only required when the current between the computational objects is required. Computationally, a director of the communications session provides the characteristics of a communications session. It provides a connection graph interface for a service session to manipulate. A connection graph is an abstraction that defines concepts such as endpoints and lines. A session of the service expresses that conductivity requirements are added, eliminating and joining endpoints and lines. A director of the service session will request connectivity between the current interfaces of the computational objects. The director of the communications session calls for the connection of the management of the objects to establish physical connections between the access points to the network of the important computing node and the nodal service that allows a network access point to be connected to the current interface of the software. The components of connection management are not discussed further in this specification. A user can be simultaneously involved in multiple service sessions. A service session has one or more users associated with it and for each associated user there will be a related user session. A service session may have one or more communication sessions if the service involves current communication. A communication session is related to exactly one service session. The purpose of this separation is to decouple the oriented service of activities from connection-oriented activities. Many types of services can exist in a future network and not all will require the explicit establishment of connections (streams). The service session is therefore a control point for all types of service, creating communication sessions when necessary. The concepts of access define those objects and interfaces that support the user's access and the terminal to the services. Users need flexible access to services, in terms of the locations from which they have access to the service and the types of terminal they use. The user's access is therefore distinguished from the access of the terminal. An agent concept is used to define the TINA-C access model. An agent in this context is a computational object, or collection of objects, that acts on behalf of another entity. A user agent represents and acts on behalf of a user. Receive user requests to establish service sessions, or to join existing service sessions and create or negotiate with existing service sessions as appropriate. The creation of a service session by a user agent is subject to subscription and authentication checks. A user agent also receives and processes requests to join a service session of the service sessions by themselves. This is a way to process the incoming call where another user has created a service session and invites the user to join. The user agents know the subscribed services that a user can create. This list can be presented to the user, when the user registers about his user agent.

A terminal agent is responsible for representing a terminal. It is responsible for obtaining the precise location of a terminal. Two examples are; the network access point a laptop is attached to and the cell in which a mobile phone is currently located. To access a service, users must associate their user agents with the terminal agents. This is part of an identification entry in the process. A user can be associated simultaneously with many terminals. For example, in a video conference a user may be using both a workstation and a telephone. In a similar way a terminate can be associated simultaneously with many users, for example, when in a meeting all the users associated their user agents with the telephone in the meeting room. The user and terminal agents are computational objects that must have high reliability properties. These are required in such a way that the network software can be based on a fixed point for the location of users and terminals in an environment where both can be moving around.

Communications Access v Organization by Users Figure 10 represents a computational view of access and session concepts together. The shaded boxes of the user and terminal agents 102, 107 represent service-independent objects and the white boxes 107 ', 1006, represent service-specific objects. With reference to Figure 10 and 11, in one example, a user wishes to couple in voice communication with another user. First, the user selects a terminal over which he will enter the network. Suppose it is a workstation 1102 with window capabilities. As part of an identification procedure, the terminal and user agents 102, 107 meet and associate with each other. Then the user is presented with a capabilities menu. It can be input to impose some local or global preferences. Where the terminal is a work station, this will usually be by selecting inputs but with other terminal equipment it can be, for example by means of a numeric keypad or an inserted card or the like. In any of the entries the user is passed to the terminal agent 102, which can act on, or add information (such as CPE capabilities) to the inputs.

The user selects the voice call option. The terminal agent 102 passes the request to the user agent 107 to establish a voice call service 1006, makes requests, passes over the requirements which the user has established and joins the user to the session, causing the user session 1010 to be created. Another menu is presented to the user requesting the identification of the user to be called. At the input of the data, the user agent 107 requests the director 1006 of the service session to join the new user in the session 1010. The director of the service session 1006 uses the identity to locate the user agent 107 'of the user called, and a request for the union is passed to the remote user agent 107 '. The remote user agent 107 'then alerts its associated terminal agent 102' of the incoming voice call. • The remote terminal agent 102 'then alerts the terminal 1101 of the called user, presenting a window in the user's terminal (for simplicity it is assumed that the user has already been identified). The called user accepts the call and a response is fed back to the director 1006 of the service session. Upon observing the acceptance, the first service session manager 1006 creates a session 1010 'of the new user's user and then requests the director of the communication session 1007 to establish a connection between the end-user applications that reside in each of the terminals 1001, 1002 of the users (the identities of the interface of which were passed in a previous request or response). When the connection is established, a response is passed back to the originating user. The two parties can then couple the voice conversation. At any time, any party can leave the session. This will result in the other user being notified and removing the service session. During the voice conversation, subject to permission, each user can request another user to join the conversation. The session 1010 of the user can be used to record the duration of the call and thus be used to calculate a total charge that can be added to the user's billing records, before the end of the service session. In the above, the user has selected a voice call option. Of course it is possible to select a more complex option, such as video conference. When the director of the service session is created in response to a request for an option, the requests may be triggered by a factory component of the Director of the Service Session 1006 to provide a constructed version of a Service Session. The object for restrictions imposed by the Service Session, the user may now have some level of control over the Service Session. For example, in a video conference, the service session class can be organized to give director privileges to the first one who enters. The User Agent 107 now has to ensure that the other conference participants are informed that they are in a development conference with director privileges for the first one that enters. Each other user, however, will also have a measure of build and control capacity through his or her own user service session interface 1010 '. This interface allows them, for example, to define the bandwidth of the video windows that are not in use or to define which video streams are going to go to the upper box of the device or which one they store by means of a personal computer. They are probably, however, having only limited general control over the conference conditions, such as winning the floor ?. The 1010, 1010 User Service Sessions will inherit certain functionality associated with a conference, such as the need for video and audio stream and a stream of data. This is achieved by the creation (by means of a factory) of Connection Sessions handled by a Director 1020 of communications session. As a result, streams in a conference can potentially be configured directly (for example chosen not to send videos), as part of the service (allocation of bandwidth reduced to a channel not directly involved in the conference), or imposed by User Agent 107 (for example to take advantage of low rates) or Terminal Agent 102 (capacity restrictions of the terminal). The Director of the Communications Session 1020 organizes the Connection Sessions as required (including virtual packet switched connections for file transfer, etc.).

SUPPLY OF THE SERVICE USING SOFTWARE AGENTS RECONFIGURABLE The foregoing indicates a technical context in which the embodiments of the present invention may be based. With reference to Figures 1 and 11, a service delivery system according to an embodiment of the present invention, comprises capabilities expressed in a combination of hardware and software, which are structured in domains, these being as follows: i) terminal domain, 101 ii) domain of the retail seller of the service, 103 iii) domain of the service provider, 104 iv) domain of the communications network provider, 106 The domains represent typical areas of supply and responsibility of organization and will contain or will provide, data and functionality appropriate to their respective areas. Diligent software agents are based on each of the domains 101, 103, 104, 106. The agents are responsible in each case to represent a set of local resources, with respect to their particular domains and negotiate with each other for the best assignment of your collective recourse to fulfill a service request. The communication between the agents is handled by the DPE. This mode is a DPE core 105 that resides in, and part of the domains 101, 103, 104, 106. Message communication between the agents can then be handled by the DPE core. Also with reference to Figure 3, each agent is a computational object and therefore comprises data and functionality. In addition, each agent comprises several component objects, or object types 301, 302, 303. These component objects would usually be run on one or more of the compute nodes that are distributed in a communications network. The objects will be implemented by the use of an object-oriented software language from which several suitable examples are readily available, such as C ++. The policies for these objects can be implemented as data structures stored in computer memory devices 1104, which are interpreted by the component objects and can be updated dynamically. The use of the policies is known and described in the publications described such as a special edition of JSAC on network management, volume 11, No. 9 December 1993, by J D Moffett and M. S Sloman. Each agent uses local recognition of its resource domain to offer the supply of those resources to other agents to agreed standards and specification. Any of the agents can supply and request the resources.

Domains v Respective Agents Anyone who needs access to the system, who may be a customer or an end user, but can also be, for example, a service provider or the retail seller of the service, interacts with the system through the terminal domain 101, over which the Terminal Agent 102 (TA) resides. A request for a service by a user would activate interactions between agents, each agent representing their own domain, which would then lead to a response for the user based on the outcome of those interactions. The terminal domain 101"contains" the user and items owned or controlled by the user, such as the user's personal profile and applications and terminal. The Terminal Agent 102 is responsible for representing the terminal resources, when interacting with agents in the retail vendor domain, 103, the domain of the service provider 104 and the domain of the network provider 106. The resources of the terminal usually include applications service (for example, an email editor), communication capabilities and user-interface platform. Typically, TA 102 will negotiate rules that relate to its resources that include: - terminal resources - user capabilities - interface (eg multimedia graphical user interface) - processing capacity; - memory devices; - communications ports and capabilities; - software operation systems; - specification of applications and capabilities (for example video on demand); - specification of the access point to the network (for example type, capacities) - another factor that would be important to optimize the supply of the service. It is observed in the domain 103 of the seller at retail of the service, this represents the area of interest of the retail seller who needs: to provide access to the information and communication services and associated tools • acts as the intermediary man or intermediary for the suppliers of the service or network providers • offers guaranteed construction of services for individual clients • manage services. It contains an important agent, responsible for providing and managing the retail service, for users and called here an Access Agent (AA) 107. This is a version of the "User Agent" described above in relation to a TINA architecture. C and therefore the same reference number is used in the Figures. In addition to the agents, domain 103 of the retail seller of the service contains a set of management processes to allow the accessories such as the following: to monitor the activity, make configuration changes, specify and enforce policies, maintain the quality, access of the operation etc. how the demands and resources vary, keep the pace and relative security of the mechanisms in effect, calculate the interactions and add links for third parties and advertising service. These management processes support the retail services provided and managed by the access agent 107, whose services can be performed by the resources provided by the retail seller, such as billing, or can be made by the resources provided by the agents in the domains of the network provider or service provider. Typically, the AA 107 will negotiate rules for its resources, which include cost, payment, quality of service (QoS) security, information content, functional content, options and format and control restrictions. Observing domain 104 of the service provider, it represents the domain of interest of the service sources, which can be purchased in domain 103 of the retailer. "Contains" a set of different service providers, each of which may be represented by agents to negotiate with buyers in domain 103 of the retail seller in supplying and paying for services and similar matters.

(It can be observed as a specialization of domain 103 of the retailer with a restricted set of customers and offers). Domain 104 of the service provider contains another type of important agent, here called the service session agent 109 (SSA), which represents the resources of an information service provider. In the usual mode of operation, an SSA 109 provides information services requested by an AA in the user's name. Typically SSA 109 will negotiate rules for its resources that include cost, payment, QoS, security, information content, functional content, format, control options and restrictions. The SSA 109 will frequently communicate with the agents in the network domain 106 for the provision of the connection resources. Observing the domain 106 of the network provider, it represents the domain of interest of the providers of the network used to transport messages, for example from the user to the retailer or to other users. Therefore it "contains" the network hardware and associated software and connection control features to allow for specific IN services. The user would not have direct contracting relationship with the network provider, which on the contrary can be considered as a subcontractor for the retail seller.

Another important agent is the Network Agent (NA) 110, which resides in the domain of the network provider and is responsible for representing the resources of the network. NA 110 will negotiate the allocation of network connections to provide services provided by other agents. Typically, NA 110 will negotiate rules for its resources that include cost, payment, connection addresses, bandwidth, QoS, mobility, priority, operation, quality, security and control options and restrictions. With particular reference to Figure 11, each of these domains can be supported by computational nodes 810 in a network. As shown, a computational node 810 carries both of a terminal domain 101 and a domain 103 of the vendor to the retail of the service. These may alternatively reside in different nodes, or in other domains, such as domain 104 of the service provider, may additionally be resident in the same node 810.

Construction of the Intelligent Agent With reference to Figure 3, the agents in the embodiments of the present invention are particularly advantageous in their new construction.

The embodiments of the present invention perform characteristics of providing information services, such as extension capacity, flexibility capacity, capacity for improvement, rejection capacity and management capacity through the use of a plurality of cooperative, distributed and intelligent agents. by the new construction of the intelligent agents involved. Each agent shows an encapsulation design comprising several cooperating component objects. As mentioned in the above, the agent was constructed from a combination of three types of component object 301, 302, 303 that can be dynamically added or removed. These component object types are: i) service-independent building blocks (SIBB) 301; ii) adapters 302; and iii) a 303 coordinator. These are described more fully in the following: Policies In the embodiments of the present invention, the operation of a component object is determined by the adjustment of operations programmed in a collection time. Such operations act on the object itself and other objects in the system. The execution of these operations is determined by the object that reacts to enter messages or internal activation and respond according to "system state". The state of the system is information maintained by objects and shared by inter-object communication. It is determined by the value of the attributes in the object itself and those in other objects. The operation of an object is governed fundamentally by rules (or policies). The policies are considered as data and control the output of the task of an object, the way to achieve the output and the relationship of a component object with even component objects. A very simple example of such a rule is: "if. {Tests on system attributes give a recognized condition.}. The do (or do not) perform { Operations.}. On { Objects.}." the use of policies, can be embedded in an object. In the embodiments of the present invention, however, it may be preferable that at least some policies are not embedded, but loaded by the object during the operation. The object on the other hand has an interleaved instruction to look for the policy, instead of having the same policy, interspersed. The policy itself then is external to the object. If you want to change the behavior of an object, you can: 1. change the attributes of the system. This should not be advantageous because external attributes can also govern the behavior of other objects, which should not be changed: 2. change the values held in the object with which the attributes of the system are compared. This can provide the desired behavior but can also result in other rules on the object's failure; 3. change the test performed on the attributes of the system; 4. change which scheduled operations are performed when activated. The concept of load policies gives the flexibility to do any of these dynamically during run time and policies can be reused among many objects. For example, suppose that a single object was replaced and the interaction of several objects must be changed to recognize the new one. This can be done almost easily with external policies. Known constructions, where policies are interspersed in objects, receive re-writing of the code in the object to change the behavior. External policies allow not only change the behavior to be achieved more easily, but also more freely and can allow extra behavior (which is composed of combinations / permutations of a programmed set of operations) to be performed even if they were not anticipated originally. The concept of policies is such that an object must have access to a "Policy Interpreter". This can be internal or external to the object. To locate the policies, a policy server must be provided, again either internally or externally to an object.

Coordinator For each agent there is a single coordinating component object 303, that is, responsible for the membership of other component objects for the set comprising the agent. The coordinator 303 uses a set of policies to ensure that the member of the component objects can be used cooperatively, to resolve policy conflicts and to establish collective intertrap policy for the complete set of the component object.

(Collective policies are policies that are available for two or more component objects in the set).

A coordinator 303 in this context, therefore, must generally be described as a software entity that has at least the functionality of selection and conflict resolution. Examples of conflict that must be resolved by a coordinator include two objects, both of which have the instruction "defer" and the subjects which both need the same resource. The coordinator must modify an object to resolve the conflict and must use collective policies to ensure no more than a certain proportion of the resource that is used by any of the objects. The function of the coordinator 303 must, in practice, be provided from more than one object or disuted among the objects with other functionality.

Building Blocks Service-Dependent There are one or more independent service building blocks (SIBB) that are responsible for the service's direction and service provision. The SIBB are units of information and functionality that provide the services to another agent or users. A SIBB can use several low-level resources to supply its service unit. It is the ability of the embodiments of the present invention for the flexible addition of SIBBs to an agent that significantly conutes to the extensibility, manageability and ability to increase the infrastructure of information services. The SIBB can be atomic or more usually a body composed of atomic SIBB sets. For example in AA the composite SIBB called Accountant, which gives subscribers an account question, includes the atomic SIBB data_locate, data_read. It is through the construction of the SIBBs from the atomic SIBBs that the modalities of the present invention achieves in part the capacity of utilization of the infrastructure of the information services.

Adapters The adapters of which there may be one or more provide the core services provided by the SIBB in such a way as to maximize the capacity, quality and effectiveness of the service. The agent tunes out its service output by presenting it through the choice and configuration of adapters that are more appropriate for specific access circumstances of the consumer of the services. The adapters can be atomic or more usually composed of sets of atomic adapters. For example for an AA the adapter will support the question of the account service of a mobile phone or a personal computer by the choice of different terminal adapters. Alternatively, an adapter must "tune" the provision of service for a user in relation to other restions, such as the language in which the service session must be carried out appropriately for that user. The embodiment of the present invention achieves its adaptability at least in part by means of the construction of the flexible agent using adapters.

Service features It has been established that an important aspect of the infrastructure of the information services is the provision of the service for users by the retail information seller. In accordance with the embodiments of the present invention, the implementation of the supply of the service provided by the retailer will generally confer a minimum number of capacities for the benefit of the users. These capabilities should include: 1. Propose identifiers for the choice of the context of use and support authentication (Authenticated). The authenticated gives protection to the user giving several levels of security against the use or unauthorized access to the information. For example end users have protection from privacy violation, subscribers of fraudulent use of subscriptions, the retailer and the service provider from unauthorized access to the sensitive address function and information related to service sessions; 2. ask the seller at retail the content and specifications of the services sold, (ask). The end users, the subscribers, the buyers benefit from this accessory, because they can search more effectively for the services that can provide the content of required services. Also retail sellers and suppliers can advertise more advantageously by offering their services to interested customers; 3. Ask and use any service allowed at a specified quality and negotiated cost, (use). This accessory benefits all users by requesting the required services in a more appropriate way for their access circumstances, personal preferences, use permits and restrictions of use and protections against conflict between service sessions. For example, an end user may request a service only under circumstances that are allowed by a subscription (thus reinforcing the contract between the retail seller and the subscriber). When used, the service is customized for the declared preferences of the end user and optimized by the appropriate configuration for the context of end user use; 4. Observation services available for use and associated information, such as usage permits and restrictions (observation services). The observation accessory confers advantages for the user by displaying information such as capabilities and restrictions of the services, which can be used; for example, categories of restricted films in a video demand service, 5. the history of the observation service, such as the usage record and due charges (observation charges). The advantage of this accessory is that users can, if allowed, see the historical use made of the services and associated charges. For example, a subscriber can monitor billing in groups for specific end users for the subscription can be effectively managed. An end user can benefit from being able to monitor for the unauthorized use of their identity; 6. enter a financial transaction to pay the subscription and invoices, (payment charges).

The benefits of the payment capacity of anonymous users, subscribers and the retail seller provide a financial installation mechanism. Several alternative means can be implemented, such as credit card transactions, acceptance of currency sending, electronic keys and direct bank instructions; 7. request assistance and assistance in any aspect of the retail environment (assistance). The immediate access to help during the use of the service and accessories is of great advantage for all the users to give more effective help and guarantee of the functioning of the tasks. In addition, the retailer and the supplier benefit from the users with the power to make most of the accessories. 8. The user observes and changes the personalized preferences for each subscribed service, (Set profile). It is the profile of the user that builds the service that is offered to individual users and users with powers to manufacture each service for their change requirements (for example, the end user can specify a specific delivery destination for each service or aspect such as observation and feeling on a graphical user interface. 9. negotiate and organize a new subscription or change the characteristics of an existing subscription such as the permissions of different users in an organization (subscription). The subscription accessory gives the advantage to the retailer and the subscriber in the ability to dispose of a contract poorly and quickly. End users benefit from the rapid availability of services. It is the availability of these accessories optimized for different circumstances of user access that gives commercial appeal of the products sold retail to customers. Preferably, these accessories are implemented using the components of intelligent people described in the above.

AA Specifications The set of accessories described in the above shows the set available in the general case, however, the form of the agent components (coordinator, adapter and SIBB) are chosen and configured to implement these specific accessories for the type of user, An end user employed by a corporate subscription has different needs of a domestic subscriber from the services arranged for a family. The present invention partly achieves construction for user types through many AA specializations that are targeted to the needs of the specific user types. Each specialization is a reusable combination of components that meet the AA needs of each type of user. The AA specialization is also constructed when the context of use is established. These sets are shown in Figure 2, where the capabilities in italics are not available in this Agent specialization. The common accessories for different specializations work differently according to the role of the user. For example, a service director expects the accessories to work differently for an end user. However, a user can change the usage context at any time by sending the different usage context identifiers for authentication, for example by entering a different user name and keyword. It is implicit that the identified user has a level of authority that may affect the privileges offered by each accessory for which the user has access. Such privileges are maintained in the user's profile and usually can only be changed by other users granting responsibility and privileges to make such changes. This could be the case for an administrator user for a corporate subscription. A presentation by any of the agents is the , version of failure established by the seller to the detail of the service. This appears unless the data in the user's profile has been obstructed by the user. The construction of the profile is provided by the accessory Profile of the Set that may incur charges. For example, the end user, the sales and the terminal / NAP agents can display advertising for lack and a user prefers to avoid advertising may carry a charge for the user. With reference to Figure 2, the AA agent sets can be as follows: Initial Agent 201 The agent normally found when a user or a terminal enters the service of the seller's domain in detail. It will give access to the vendor's accessories to the retail chooses to supply without using identifiers that are sent. The only available accessories must be authenticated and assistance, for example, contact for emergency medical help. In the case of simple voice telephony this agent is analogous to the soft dial tone.

End User Agents 202 The agent used when the user has sent the identifiers of the user that the retail vendor has authenticated as an end user of one or more existing subscriptions. This agent will provide the final user identified with the personal service set derived from the subscription that grants privileges to the end user. The Ask, Use, Observation Services and Set Profile attachments are restricted to service subscriptions that cover the end user. The Support accessory supports the activities of the end user. Observation charges show only those aspects of service use and cost that the subscriber (who is paying for the service) has allowed the end user to observe. The set profile allows the construction of the end user profile data for the service, but within the restrictions of the corresponding subscriptions. The subscription and payment of charges are not possible from this agent. The end-user agent has a particular application for end users, who are not responsible for the provision of services, for example children in a day-care center or employees of a corporation, who expect only to use the services. An end user can be identified personally or by the role they are fulfilling within identified organizations, for example a doctor in an incoming call. (The end-user agent does not necessarily, however assume that a user is human).

Subscriber Agent 203 The agent used when the user has sent identifiers that the retail vendor has authenticated as that of the subscribing role. This agent gives the subscriber capabilities to manage subscriptions that grant access to the service for nominated end users, terminal or network access points. Requesting help the subscriber finds any retail service that can be purchased by the subscriber, according to the search criteria sent. The use allows the limited request for the purpose of training or testing the services in the sale. Observation Services, Observation Charges and Payable Charges act for purchased subscriptions. The Profile of set allows the subscriber to adjust the agent or optional faults in the profiles of the final user, terminals or NAPS that are covered by the subscriptions. The support supports the activities of the subscribers.

The subscribing agent is of private use for corporate subscriptions, where the subscriber (the buyer) can appoint service administrators to direct the subscriptions for the corporate employees, who are the end users.

Terminal and / or Agent 204 of Network Access Point (NAP) The agent used when the terminal and / or the network access point to which the terminal is connected have sent identifiers that the retail vendor has authenticated as a terminal and / or a network access point covered by an existing subscription. This specialization is similar to the End User Agent. The profile data does not imply a human user. An example of using this agent is a subscription that covers a mobile phone but not any of the human users who carry it. Another example is, for example, a video telephone, connected to a Fixed NAP to which any office staff has access. Subscription and payment charges are not possible from this agent.

Anonymous Agent 205 The agent used when the user intended to remain anonymous for not sending any identification. This agent will make available free services, where identification is not necessary, but will make services that can be charged, when the credit or payment guarantees that they have been provided by the anonymous user and accepted by the seller to the service's detail. An example of using the Anonymous Agent is an anonymous call from a public communication point, where the anonymous user pays at the time of using the service in cash or electronic passwords. The request finds any vendor to the detail of the service available to an anonymous user according to the search criteria sent. The use allows any request for free service, but for services that can be charged, it will first require payment of the accessory charges to accept the guarantee of payment. Some services are provided on a book-browsing basis, which will allow the user to sample the content of the service or advertising without paying. The user can choose to request and consequently pay for the use of the service that can be charged as appropriate. The support supports the activities of anonymous users. The subscription and the set profile are not possible from this agent.

Organization Agent 206 The agent used by a user acting in the role of director of the service that asks in the name of the seller at retail of the service. The director has access to sensitive service organization activities, which the retail seller wants to perform. An example is the termination of a service session failure or intervention fraud in a service session. The authentication required to identify a service director is greater than for other users and may require extra stages and code in the authenticator. Ask, the Usage and Observation Services related to the services, to which the director has been granted with director privilege. It uses requests of the address accessories on the services which can include observation of the audit records of a user, which contains the history of the use of the service. The Set Profile allows the construction of the profile data of the director. The assistance supports the activities of the retail sales managers. The subscription allows a director to change the management services and available accessories, including the granting of privileges to other directors with less authority. Pay charges and observe charges that are not possible from this agent.

Sales Agent 207 This agent is assigned to identified users to act as potential subscribers or end users so that they can ensure the service specifications, operation, retail accessories to the retail and other factors that should influence a purchase decision. The agent's main purpose is to sell the services at retail. The question finds any service that the retailer retail according to the research criteria sent. The use allows authorized applications for the purpose of testing, testing and utilizing the services in the sale. The subscription takes the potential buyer through the subscription process, which includes sending payment guarantees, for example, a credit check. The assistance supports the activities of potential buyers. The Vista Fees, Payment Fees and Joint Profile are also possible from this agent.

This agent finds particular application in the home or small business where the end user can also be the subscriber.

Provider Agent 208 This agent is used by the service provider for the access address of the logical service or content aspects that are the responsibility of the service provider. For example, a service provider may want to update or change the library information contained by a video on demand service. The strength of the authentication is stronger than for most other users and may require extra stages and code in the authenticator. Ask about the accessories of the Services of Use and Observation that work in the services for which the Provider to whom the privilege has been granted. The use allows the provider to request the service functions required for the address of the service provider. The Set Profile allows the construction of the supplier's profile data. The assistance supports the activities of the supplier directors. The Observation Charges, Payment Charges and Subscription are not possible from this agent.

Buyer Agent 209 This agent is used by the retail vendor as a representative to negotiate the complete sale of contracts for the provision of the service with providers of service components and network capabilities for inclusion in other services. The strength of the authentication is greater than for most other users and may require extra stages and code in the authenticator. The use of services is not possible from this agent Reconfigure ation The reconfiguration of one agent established to another can be done, for any object, using a policy, which is related to the context. However, this is relatively complex. Alternatively, the same object can be used, but with different policies, or a new object can be introduced. The second of two processes will be controlled by the coordinator. For example, using a policy which relates to the context, if the Access agent is to reconfigure from the Initial Agent 201 to the Subscriber Agent 208, then the authentication functionality will still be necessary but will be needed to be reinforced. This must be done by using a policy which states: "If the service requires authentication, then it offers a first level of authentication unless the context of use shows that the user requested any of the (End User, Terminal, Anonymous, Subscriber, Sales) the specific functionality, whose case offers a second level of authentication. "In an example of using different policies with an object in the reconfiguration of Anonymous Agent 205 for User Agent 202 Final SIBB Locator will require new policies, because the set of service resources to be located will be different in each case In an example of introducing a new object, going from the initial Agent 201 to the Provider Agent 208, the new object "Ask" will need to be added to the set.

AA Components With reference to Figure 4, this shows specific adapters and AA SIBBs in their Sales Agent configuration. That is, it shows a set of components of specific sales agents, which will fulfill all the supplies of the Sales Agent service at a high level of functionality. The coordinator is responsible for the selection and interworking of the AA components and directing the interfaces through which communication with AA can be initiated. When the context of this communication is established by the coordinator, it can pass over the interface references, in such a way that AA components and external objects can communicate directly. The coordinator is responsible for receiving the usage context data when a user first enters the retail accessories. The usage context data contains the technical specification of the specific access arrangements employed by the user, includes identifiers of the user sent for the authentication (or specifies the absence thereof) and contains information on the purpose for which the user is within the system. The usage context data is used by the coordinator to select the appropriate adapters and the SIBBs that have negotiated with TA for the corresponding allocation of terminal resources to match the adapters. The following components are SIBB components: The Use Context maintains and manages data describing all aspects of the current usage context (user identity and role) and may include the terminal resource specification and identity, specification and NAP identity. The Use and Account maintains and manages data that describes the history of the use of the service and that corresponds to the context of use, charges incurred, credit limits, charges paid and other important data for accounting and usage history. The User Profile maintains and manages data that characterizes the specific preferences to request and receive services and accessories that are important for the context of use. For example, entertainment service, or observe and feel preferred Ul. The Subscription of the Service maintains and handles data specified by the subscriber and the seller to the detail that defines the capacities and restrictions of the subscriptions that cover the context of use. The Authentifier implements the function "authenticate", which receives identifiers that correspond to any of the user, terminal and point of access to the network and by appropriate tests determines that the identifiers are authentic and that they are used legitimately. Authenticated use identifiers are made available to the other SIBBs and adapters to find the associated data records and autoconfiguration appropriately.

The Locator performs the function of finding resources that correspond to the subscriptions that cover the context of current use. The importance of the locator is that the locations of the resource are identified in such a way that when the services are requested by the user there is no appreciable delay for the user. Without the real-time location of the brand or object requested, the intermediary is necessary. The Accountant implements the acquisition and billing of usage and accounting data sent from the service sessions and prepares a view of this data for view charges or accessory payment charges. The profile Director implements the "subscribe" attachment to negotiate the purchase and supply of a service and change the subscription details maintained in the subscription data of the service. This component maintains and updates the User Profile Data, when it is instructed by the user who uses the set profile accessory. The User Profile data contains information that allows users to construct their preferred failure options for services within the subscription set restrictions by the subscriber and the retailer. The Observation Services accessory is implemented in the Profile Director, which uses the context of use and subscription data of the service to give the user visibility of the available services and their restrictions or capabilities. The Session Management is responsible for all aspects of request and concurrent management of the service sessions in accordance with the subscription permissions and implements the accessory of use. The address of the session includes the ability to monitor the use of the resource and protect against the adverse resource or interactions of the service. For example, the director of the session is responsible for directing the conflict between an incoming videophone call when the user has all the resources of the terminal currently occupied with a video demand service. The Browser is responsible for interaction with the DPE directories and merchants for the search for reference to the available resources of the DPE. Such resources can be a source of a specific information article, for example a video demand title or a specific service session or the service factory. The browser implements the "ask" accessory. The Assistant implements the "assistance" accessory. Many implementations are made, which include the problem based on the form, reporting hypertext help, and a direct videophone to a human assistant deployed on behalf of the retailer.

The SIBBS User Profile, Use and Accounting, Subscription to the Service and Context of Use are important because they are persistent although they may be inactive in storage when the agent is not in use. This is generally not true for other SIBBs. These object components maintain and manage key data structures for service supplies, which provide services for other SIBBs and adapters. The following is related to the Adapters: The adapters are autoconfigured using data maintained in the context of use, the user profile and subscription of the service. In this example, adapters are implemented to support heterogeneity of terminals, applications, user interfaces, user and access points to the network. The following are examples: The Terminal Adapter has a different version and configuration to support the difference between UNIX-based terminals and those based on DOS operating systems. The User Interface Adapter has versions and configuration that supports different user interface standards such as X-windows and Windows PC. The Application Adapter supports different types of applications that reside in the terminal, for example equivalent multimedia e-mail products from different manufacturers. This adapter could also support different versions of software supplied by a provider. A NAP Adapter adjusts the need for a user to access the service supply from a variety of network access types, such as a cellular phone or a fixed point of high bandwidth. The User Adapter constructs the AA for a specific user by reference to the information maintained in the Context of Use and the User Profile Data that include personal information and information about the preferences to run a service expressed by the user. For example, this may include filtering training provided to a non-technical user to exclude the technical subject matter.

Example of Operation Mode Two aspects of a preferred mode of operation will be described. The first aspect is the service request of a call, where a user requests a multimedia service session. The second aspect is the provision of the incoming call where an end user of an existing service session requests the provision of some aspect of that service to another end user, for example the request to join a multimedia conference or multimedia e-mail supply .

Example of Call that Leaves With reference to Figures 2, 4, 5, 10 and 11, the preferred mode for an outgoing call request will now be described by reference to a video demand service. However, form AA 107 establishes the optimal service provision provisions with user access provisions common to all AA specializations. In this mode, the user would normally have a terminal computer, such as a personal computer or a television with a user interface provided by a box on top of the apparatus. STEP 501: normally the user enters commands into the terminal application 1120 that supports the information of the retail environment. STEP 502: the terminal application 1120 then instructs the TA 102 to request that AA 107 present the supported services and accessories of the current combination of the terminal and the configuration of the network. STAGE 503: TA 102 sends a message through the distributed processing environment (DPE) to AA 107, which would be created or reactivated from storage in a network node, so that to consider the use of computing resources and quality of service demands. This TA 102 message includes information about the context of use. In this implementation, the TA 102 obtains information about the network access point through the dialogue with the network agents 110, information which can then be used if necessary, to establish and optimize the interoperation of the terminal applications with the resources of the network. STAGE 504: AA 107 receives the NAP information from TA 102. Alternatively, in other implementations training about the network access point can reach AA 107 direct from network agent 110 to TA request 102 or in the request of AA 107. STAGE 505: the context of use is used by AA 107 to autoconfigure as an Initial Agent 201. STAGE 506: AA will negotiate with TA 102 for the terminal resources required to support the proposed AA configuration 201 . The AA is able to adapt the service provision to the circumstances of the specific user, terminal, application and NAP by employing the appropriate choice and configuration of the 40 AA adapters shown in Figure 4. It is the implementation of these components that gives AA 107 the ability to maximize the effectiveness of service delivery and direction. The AA specialization found first is Initial Agent 201. Due to the limited accessories available from this agent, it only requires adapter 40 for the terminal, the user-interface and NAP and the SIBB 41 authenticator and auxiliary. The user is then in contact with an AA 107 which will give a minimum set of accessories. STAGE 507: this set can be increased or changed by the direct or indirect request of the user, for example by sending the details of the authentication. This approach maximizes the sensitivity of the service provision to the user and minimizes the unnecessary consumption of the vendor's processing resources at retail. STEP 508: the user can now choose to propose the context of use, for example in the form of user name identifiers and password for authorization by the initial agent 201 AA. (In another implementation, user identifiers such as user name and keyword sent for authentication can be automatically sent by TA 10 when initial agent 201 first contacts.

This is the case when the identifiers are kept in a memory device 1130 in the terminal 1101. This could be the preferred mode when the user has already identified each computer terminal). In some situations the user may wish to remain anonymous or prefer a variety of reasons that do not have the use of the service associated with any particular subscription. In this case the user can use anonymous AA 205 requesting the anonymous status by means of an authentication function in other AAs, although usually the choice would be made from the initial agent 201. STAGE 509: from any other AA the request for AA 205 Anonymous results in the reconstruction of anonymous AA by the addition, replacement or reconfiguration of SIBBS 41 and adapters 40. For example, the anonymous AA request results in the reconfiguration of the User's adapter because the use of the anonymous service has not been associated with no subscription data or user profile and therefore is established by failure. The coordinator 42 can now carry the additional SIBB 41, such as the Counter in such a way that the user can pay charges and the Navigator in such a way that the user can use the Ask accessory. When the user has provided the identification from the Initial Agent 201 that has been authenticated by the retail seller, the initial AA coordinator 42 adds in 'all the SIBB addresses that will change the AA specialization from an Initial AA to a user AA 202. final. For example, the Profile Director to direct the subscription data, the Accountant for the end user may be observing charges (if allowed by the subscriptions), the Session Director requests the service sessions and the Navigator to provide the question . Some components can be improved or reconfigured by changes in the policy, for example the Assistant which is present in the Initial Agent but usually in a smaller functional form. The Profile Director finds the subscription records that relate to the end user and builds a view of the available services, their restrictions and the related user profile. STAGE 510: the available services are now returned from AA 107 to TA 102 and presented to the user, for example on a visual screen as a set of icons on a graphical user interface or as menu options listed. STAGE 511: a user can now proceed to request a service or accessory such as the video demand service by selecting the icon corresponding to that service on the visual screen of the terminal. The director of the AA component session SIBB is responsible for directing the concurrent service sessions and will receive the request and determine how to comply with it by contacting an SSA identified by the locator. This results in a message, sent via DPE, which could include information about how the service presentation should be optimized for the user and the subscription, such as the context of use, user profile preferences for the VoD service. , restrictions on the subscription of the service (for example film category restrictions) and other factors that could be important to optimize the service delivery such as those described in relation to the SSA 109. An SSA 109 is able to negotiate and adapt the provision of the service to the user's access circumstances in a similar way as AA - for a coordinated inclusion and configuration of appropriate adapters 40 and SIBB 41. SSA 109 negotiates with TA 102 to secure the appropriate software resources, such as application of video demand are presented or supplied to terminal 101 to support the service session. In another implementation, the user can directly request a video demand application that resides in terminal 101. In this case the user can not see the retail environment and the service menus because the selection of the demand service video can be assumed by the terminal agent and this message would therefore be sent to the access agent. The SSA 109 also negotiates with the Network Agent 110, which eventually results in an appropriate connection between the video and terminal service resources, so that the user can interact to select a video, a fast forward control video feed supply or pause for example and receive the video stream Additionally, the session resources of the service send accounting data for the AA component SIBB counter in such a way that the use of the service can be billed to the subscriber. The subscriber is able to observe the load and payment arrangement for the VoD session using Subscriber Agent 203.

Example Call Enter In the embodiment of the present invention described in the foregoing, only one access agent 107 is shown and described. In practice, an Access Agent can be assigned to each user of the system. In the case of the incoming call for a user, the AA 107 'of the called user has a key role in providing the service output.

With reference to Figure 7 instead of Figure , the preferred mode of operation is such that the calling user has a service session that requires participation by, or supply information for, the called user. STAGE 701: the calling user establishes an ETAPA service session 702: the calling user supplies the Service Session Agent 109 with the identity of the called user. STAGE 703: This identity is suitable for the Service Session Agent 109 to find the location of the 107 'AA of the called user, usually with the help of an intermediary requesting the object. Because AA 107 'has the responsibility to provide services, it maintains the user profile information about how the called user wants the particular service to be provided. This information will have been recorded during the previous interaction between the called user (or only terminal where the registration is automatic) and the set profile accessory of the SIBB component profile director of the AA 107 '. For example, if the service was multimedia email, the called user must want this supplied to the electronic letter box, or in the case of a multimedia conference the request for the incoming call must be supplied to the user's multimedia terminal called in the business office. STAGE 704: in the case of a multimedia conference service the Director of the SIBB component AA Session called using the instructions to terminate the call kept between the user's profile data establishes communication with TA 102 'called. STEP 705: in the preferred operation, the terminal agent 102 'is capable of initiating the appropriate terminal resources, such as the multimedia conference application to provide the conference invitation sent by the Session Director. STAGE 706: the called AA 107 'can request an authentication dialog with the user, if this does not automatically by TA, when communicating with AA. Such a dialogue may require that the AA and TA adapters have their interaction capacity optimized. STAGE 707: if the called user accepts the invitation, then AA 107 call is responsible to pay the Service Session Agent 109 for the provisions that the called user will be using to participate or receive from the Service Session. This includes the context of use. STAGE 708: the result is that SSA 109 would bind the called user to the multimedia conference session resources, giving the called user the provision of the optimized service for the user's access circumstances within the retail's address policies in detail. in the embodiment of the present invention, it is advantageous for an entity to have access to the system, to be able to enter data causing the reconfigurable software agent to a transition between the configurations. With reference to Figure 6, however, it may be preferable to mimic the transitions, which are available, as shown in the Figure, the configurations can be classified, according to the level of authentication required. The initial agent configuration 201 will often have a low level of authentication, since this agent simply provides the means for a user to begin using the service delivery system. The End User Agent 202 requires a higher level of authentication, since an authenticated end user is potentially capable of incurring charges but for example can not activate the supply of new services (Sales Agent 207) or alter the load indexes (Agent Director 206). When classifying the configuration, in such a way that multiple authentication stages have already gone through to achieve the configuration of the Agent with increasing address functionality, additional protection against major fraudulent use of the system is provided. Except actually some transitions together, such as between the Anonymous Agent 205 and any of the Buyer 209 Supplier 208 and the 206 Directors Agents, the protection can also be improved. As shown in Figure 6, Sales Agent 207 can provide a reasonable "buffer" between the low functionality and high functionality configuration. Although the specific modality described in the above shows an infrastructure arranged in four domains, there may be a different number of domains. For example, the retail Vendor Service and Vendor Service 103, 104 domains must be "coalescent". The Access Agent 107 is used as an example in the above description of an agent and structure functionality. Each of the other agent associated with the domains, the Terminal Network and Service Session Agents 106, 101, 109 must have the same general structure, based on the SIBBs, the Adapters and a Coordinator. The objects themselves, for example the SIBB, will of course need to be different, however. Although the inventive features of the embodiments of the present invention are set forth in the claims, the following paragraphs also establish inventive concepts. The system for providing communication service to provide any one or more of a set of communications service still user in response to a request of the user, through the communication network, the system comprises i) an entry for the requests of the user ii) a plurality of software entities, each having data processing capability, a data store or access to a data store and communication capability to communicate with others of the plurality of software entities to be used in initiating the provision of a service over the network for a user and at least one of the software entities having a control output for the signals for initiation, in which the system has means responsive to the user's request to allow one of the software entities in response to the inputs, the software entity enabled that has a set of lack of capabilities, the The fault includes a reconfiguration capability in response to other entries for the enabled software entity. A system like the previous one, in which the capabilities of the enabled software entity are determined at least in part by data structures loaded in the software entity. A system like the previous one, in which the enabled software entity has access to a data store for storing data structures and the reconfiguration capability comprises the modification of the set of data structures loaded in the software entity. A system like the previous one, in which the software entities are installed in communication nodes, either on the same node or different nodes, whose nodes are provided with a distributed computing environment for communication between the software entities. A system like the previous one, in which the communications between the software entities installed in different nodes are carried by the communications network to provide services to a user, according to a protocol stack of distributed processing environment established by the environment in each node. A system like the previous one, in which the enabled software entity starts the. providing a service by transitioning between different sets of capabilities and in which transitions between one or more selected pairs of these listed sets.

A method for providing one or more communications services for a user by means of a communication network, which method comprises the steps of: i) enabling a software entity, in a unit of software entities, which together are capable of start the supply of the service to the user, to respond to a first user input, ii) in response to another user input, the reconfiguration of the software entity enabled to change its capabilities, the reconfiguration is carried out by modifying a set of data structures loaded in the software entity. A method as the previous one, which also comprises storing a set of data structures, selectively accessible by the software entity enabled to provide the reconfiguration.

Claims (40)

1. A system for the provision of services for making services available through one or more communication networks, characterized in that the service delivery system comprises intelligent software agents in a computing environment, whose agents cooperate to provide access to the services for a user of the system, at least one of the agents that is reconfigurable to modify the functionality of the system available to the user.

2. The service delivery system according to claim 1, characterized in that the reconfigurable agent adopts a first configuration in response to the initial use of the user of the system and is reconfigured to a second configuration in the reception data associated with the user.

3. The service delivery system according to claim 2, characterized in that the reconfigurable agent reconfigures itself in response to a user input to the system.

4. The service delivery system according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the reconfigurable software agent is provided with an available set of software modules and adopts a configuration at least partially, when selecting modules of the set, to make available in use the system.

5. The service delivery system according to claim 4, further characterized in that it comprises means for changing the available set of software modules for the purposes of improving or modifying the service delivery system.

6. The service delivery system according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that each software module comprises at least one stage of the process with one or more associated rules, the behavior of the system in use that is determined at least in part by the result of the application of one or more associated rules at the stage of the process.

7. The service supply system according to claim 6, characterized in that at least one or more of the associated rules are external to the software modules, which are loaded in an important module, when that module is run during the use of the module. system.

8. The service delivery system according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the reconfigurable software agent comprises or has access to a plurality of software modules, each software module that is provided with a data structure and associated functionality, at least some of the different configurations of the agent incorporating different respective sets of modules selected from the plurality, a group of software modules that provide building blocks independent of the service in the service support to be provided by the system.

9. The service delivery system according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the reconfigurable software agent comprises, or has access to a plurality of software modules, each software module that is provided with a data structure and associated functionality , at least some of the different agent configurations incorporating different respective sets of modules selected from the plurality, at least one of the software modules provides adaptation of the service delivery system to operate restrictions and / or capabilities important to the use of the system by a user.

10. The service delivery system according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the reconfigurable software agent comprises, or has access to, a plurality of software modules, each software module is provided with a data structure and functionality associated, at least some of the different configurations of the agent incorporating different respective sets of modules selected from the plurality, at least one of the software modules that provides selection and / or modification of other software modules of the plurality among different configurations of the agent.

11. The service delivery system according to claim 10 as dependent either of claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the modification of the software modules between the configurations is provided at least in part by modification or substitution of one or more associated rules of a stage of the process.

12. The service delivery system according to claim 10 as dependent either of claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the modification of the software modules between configurations, is provided at least in part by the addition or subtraction of one or more rules for or of the associated rules of a stage of the process.

13. The service delivery system according to any of claims 4 to 12, characterized in that the reconfigurable software agent comprises, or has access to, a plurality of software modules, each software module that is provided with a data structure. and an associated functionality, at least some configurations of the different configurations of the agent incorporating different respective sets of modules selected from the plurality, at least one software module of the plurality, provides the conflict resolution functionality to be used in coordination in the presence of other software modules in a selected set.

14. The service delivery system according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the data entry to the system in use, by a user, comprises calling the identification data of the entity, identifying a calling entity that has access to the system , and the configuration adopted by the reconfigurable software agent is determined at least in part by reference to the identification data of the calling identity.

15. The service delivery system according to any of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that the data entry to the system in use, by a user, excludes the identification data of the calling entity, identifying a calling entity that has Access to the system and the configuration adopted by the reconfigurable software agent determines that the system functionality includes means to provide cost data for the entity calling in advance of the service delivery through the system.

16. The service delivery system according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the configuration adopted by the reconfigurable software agent, determines that the functionality of the system includes means to accept payment data from the calling entity in advance of the supply of the service through the system.

17. The service delivery system according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the system comprises at least two intelligent, reconfigurable software agents, each reconfigurable agent that is associated with a respective user of the system.

18. The service delivery system according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that intelligent software agents are constructed in accordance with object-oriented technology.

19. The service delivery system according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the service makes available by the use of the system are information services.

20. The service delivery system according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the reconfigurable agent has a plurality of different configurations available to it and can be reconfigured to make transitions between the configurations of the plurality, during the use of the system, direct transitions between default pairs of configurations that are not available.

21. The service delivery system according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the reconfigurable agent can adopt any of a first and a second configuration, the first configuration provides a low level functionality only and the second configuration provides a higher level of the functionality, the second configuration is only selected and loaded to be used after a user compiles an authentication step of the first configuration.

22. The service delivery system according to claim 21, characterized in that in the first configuration, the functionality comprises only authentication and assistance.

23. The service delivery system for providing services by means of at least one communications network, the service delivery system is characterized in that it comprises a heterogeneous community of intelligent software agents, which interact to provide a response to a data entry. user, in which at least one agent comprises a set of objects, the behavior of at least one agent that is determined at least in part by the functionality of the object of the set.

24. The service delivery system according to claim 23, characterized in that at least one object of the set of objects has coordination functionality, control interaction among other objects of the set.

25. The service delivery system according to any of claims 23 or 24, characterized in that a group of objects in the set of objects provides building blocks independent of the service for the services provided by the system.

26. The service delivery system according to any of claims 23, 24 or 25, characterized in that a group of objects in the set of objects provides adaptation of the service delivery system to operate restrictions and / or capabilities associated with the use of the system by a user.

27. A service provision system for making information services available through one or more communication networks, characterized in that: i) the service provision system comprises the software infrastructure arranged in domains, each domain provides or has functionality of access and important data for a respective aspect of the service supply and each domain comprises an intelligent software agent; . ii) the information services and the associated address functionality can be provided to the user through cooperative interaction between the agents of different domains; and iii) at least one of the software agents is provided with an available set of reusable software elements, each element comprises data independent of the service and functionality to support any of a plurality of services, the arrangement is such that the agent can cooperate to make the functionality of the system available to a user by activating a selected combination of elements of the set.

28. The service delivery system according to claim 27, characterized in that the software infrastructure is arranged in three or more domains.

29. The service delivery system according to any of claims 27 or 28, characterized in that at least one domain provides or has access to the functionality and data important for billing for the service provided using the system.

30. The service delivery system according to any of claims 27, 28 or 29, characterized in that at least one domain is a terminal domain and provides or has access to the data and functionality associated with the user's terminal comprising restrictions of hardware and capabilities and restrictions of user application and capabilities.

31. The service delivery system according to any of claims 27 to 30, characterized in that at least one domain is at least in part a retail domain of the service and provides or has access to the data and functionality associated with the address of the service that includes the modification of the information services available for the use of the system.

32. A service delivery system, for making the information services available through one or more communication networks and to direct the supply of such services, the service delivery system is characterized in that it comprises a means of receiving a request of the user for accessing the functionality provided by the system, requesting user data for access to the functionality provided by the system, data processing means for processing the data associated with a user input and means for making the provision of the service or address functionality available to the user in response to the user's request in accordance with the data processed by the processing means, in which the functionality made available to a user is determined at least in part by the data processed by the processing medium, the service delivery system comprises agent s of intelligent software in a computing environment, whose agents cooperate to support a response to a user request by the system, at least one of the agents that is reconfigurable to modify the functionality made available in response to the data processed by the processing medium.

33. The service delivery system according to claim 31, characterized in that each reconfigurable agent has available for it a plurality of software modules and wherein the system comprises means for reconfiguring each reconfigurable agent by selection and loading of a different set of the plurality of software modules to reconstruct the agent in a new configuration.

34. The service delivery system according to claim 33, characterized in that at least some of the software modules comprise building blocks independent of the service.

35. The service delivery system according to any of claims 32, 33 or 34, characterized in that each agent is provided, during the use of the system, with data and functionality important for the role of the user in relation to the delivery system of the user. service.

36. The service delivery system according to claim 35, characterized in that at least one of the agents is provided with important data and functionality for a user terminal.

37. The service delivery system according to any of claims 34 or 35, characterized in that at least one of the agents is provided with data and important functionality for the control of service access.

38. The service delivery system according to claim 37, characterized in that the service access control agent is reconfigurable in response to the data associated with a user input to modify the access control functionality of the system.

39. The service delivery system according to any of claims 37 to 38, characterized in that the agent for service access control is reconfigurable, to change the service address functionality available to the user.

40. The service delivery system according to any of claims 34 to 39, as dependent on any of claims 4 to 22. SUMMARY A service delivery system to be used in providing information services in one or more communications networks, has a software infrastructure divided into domain (101, 103, 104, 106). Each domain has an intelligent software agent (102, 107, 109, 110) and this community of agents is based on a computing environment represented in each domain per DPE core (105). The agent community cooperates to provide service management functionality and functionality to a user. At least one of the agents (102, 107, 109, 110) is reconfigurable to change the functionality of the system makes it possible. The reconfiguration capability is based on the use of a plurality of reusable software modules, the recombination agent by selecting a new combination of modules. The software modules themselves incorporate rules, or policies, which determine the stages of the process offered by the modules in the elapsed time. These policies are external to the modules and can be loaded in the elapsed time, allowing dynamic modification for the functionality of the system. The system as a whole offers functionality associated with services of use, providing and managing them and the capacity of reconfiguration allows them to offer different types of functionality in an efficient way. It also allows access control for functionality at a different level with particularly good security against fraudulent use.