Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/06—Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Definitions

• the invention relates to a telecommunications transmission system adapted to provide a platform for electronic market place services, in particular agent orientated electronic market place services, such as, the Agent-based Market Place (AMP) services offered by Telia, and a method of operating said telecommunications transmission system
• agent orientated electronic market place services such as, the Agent-based Market Place (AMP) services offered by Telia
• the present invention is directed to, among other things, methods of operating the physical infrastructure associated with a telecommunications transmission platform used to support the provision of telecommunications based services It is necessary to draw a clear distinction between the operation of an electronic market place, which may be modelled on real world market places, and the telecommunications infrastructure used to provide a platform on which the electronic market place operates It must be recognized that the methods of commerce used on, for example the Internet, and methods of operating the technical elements of the Internet are distinct
• the user's personal assistant agent needs to send information concerning the user's interests, i e personal profile, to the accessed web-site which can then generate web-pages based on the user's personal profile
• the merchant does not know which session of HTTP- accesses should be paired with a given session of agent messages This is because the agent messages and the HTTP messages both have their own message identifiers, which are used to group messages together into sessions
• a telecommunications transmission system adapted to operate as a platform for an agent- based electronic market and including a plurality of user terminals arranged for connection to the Internet, at least one service provider server, and a plurality of electronic shops, said platform being arranged to support agent-based market interactions between a plurality of agent types, characte ⁇ sed in that said system is adapted to synchronize a real-time session for a user on an agent-enabled web-site with communications between agents of said user and said web-site using duel session identification
• Said user's agent is preferably a personal assistant agent and said web-sites agent is preferably a store agent
• the telecommunications transmission system may be adapted to provide personalized and automated web-site browsing for a user
• the personal assistant agent may be adapted to facilitate the provision of said personalized and automated web-site browsing facility
• the personal assistant agent may be adapted to send information about a user's interests to said agent-based web-site, and said agent-based web-site may be adapted to use said interest information to automatically display and promote products of interest to said user, when said user accesses said web-site.
• the personal assistant agent may be adapted to interact with said store agent to effect transfer of user data, for example, the user's name, address and payment arrangements, to facilitate automatic processing of said user's transactions on a web-site.
• a user terminal may include a computer having a web-browser, and a user interface between said web-browser and a personal assistant agent for said user.
• the personal assistant agent may reside, at a given time, on said user's computer.
• the personal assistant agent may reside, at a give time, on an Internet service provider's server.
• the user interface may be a personal assistant service graphical user interface.
• the agent-enabled web-site may include a merchant's commercial web-site having a web-interface and a store agent associated therewith
• the web-browser may be adapted to interact with said web-interface
• said personal assistant agent may be adapted to interact with said store agent
• the personal assistant agent may be adapted to communicate with said web- browser to determine where said user is browsing and when an agent-enabled web-site has been accessed.
• the personal assistant agent may be adapted to communicates with other agents when said user has accessed an agent-enabled web-site.
• the web-browser/web-server and said personal assistant agent/store agent interactions may respectively constitute first and second sessions for obtaining access to said agent-enabled web-site services, and said telecommunications transmission system may be adapted to use identical message identifiers for messages associated with said first and second sessions O 99
• the telecommunications transmission system may be adapted to enable a message identifier used for said web browser/web-server interactions to be reused for said personal assistant agent/store agent interactions
• the telecommunications transmission system may be adapted to enable data relating to said message identifier and agent-address to flow from said web-server to said web-browser, then from said web-browser to said personal assistant agent, via said user interface, and finally from said personal assistant agent to said store agent
• a user terminal for use in a telecommunications transmission system adapted to operate as a platform for an agent based electronic market, and including at least one service provider server, and a plurality of electronic shops, said platform being arranged to support agent- based market interactions between a plurality of agent types, characterised in that said user terminal is adapted for connection to the Internet, and includes a computer having a web- browser, and a user interface between said web-browser and a personal assistant agent for said user, in that said web-browser is adapted to interact with a web-interface of a merchants server to obtain access to an agent-enabled web-site, in that said personal assistant agent is adapted to interact with a store agent of said merchant's server, and in that said system is adapted to synchronize a real-time session for a user on said agent- enabled web-site with communications between said personal assistant agent and said store agent using duel session identification
• the personal assistant agent may reside, at a
• a telecommunications transmission system adapted to operate as a platform for an agent based electronic market and including a plurality of user terminals arranged for connection to the Internet, at least one service provider server, and a plurality of electronic shops, said platform being arranged to support agent based market interactions between a plurality of agent types, a method of accessing an agent-enabled web-site of said electronic market, characterised by synchronizing a real-time session for a user on said agent-enabled web- site with communications between agents of said user and said web-site using duel session identification
• the method may be characterised in that said user's agent is a personal assistant agent and said web-sites agent is a store agent
• the method may be characterised by said personal assistant agent providing said personalized and automated web-site browsing facilities for said user O 99/ 7
• the method may be characterised by said personal assistant agent sending information about a user's interests to said agent-based web-site, and by said agent-based web-site using said interest information to automatically display and promote products of interest to said user, when said user access said web-site
• the method may be characterised by said personal assistant agent interacting with said store agent to effect transfer of user data to facilitate automatic processing of said user's transactions on a web-site
• the method may be further characterised by characte ⁇ sed by said user data including, inter aha, the user's name, address and payment arrangements
• the method may be characte ⁇ sed by a web-browser of said user terminal interacting with a web-interface of a merchant's server, by a personal assistant agent of said user terminal interacting with a store agent of said merchant's server, and by said personal assistant agent communicating with said web-browser to determine where said user is browsing and when an agent-enabled web-site has been accessed
• the method may be further characterised by said personal assistant agent communicating with other agents when said user has accessed an agent-enabled web-site
• the method may be characterised by said web-browser/web-server and said personal assistant agent/store agent interactions respectively constituting first and second sessions for obtaining access to said agent-enabled web-site, and by using identical message identifiers for messages associated with said first and second sessions
• the method may be further characterised by a message identifier used for said web browser/web-server interaction being reused for said personal assistant agent/store agent interactions
• the method may be further characterised by data relating to said message identifier and agent address flowing from the said web-server to said web-browser, then from said web-browser to said personal assistant agent, via user interface, and finally from said personal assistant agent to said store agent
• the method may be characte ⁇ sed by said user accessing said merchant's server for O 99/46700
• said server in response to said user access, sending a HTTP response, containing a 'first session id' to said user's web-browser, said response containing a code which identifies that the required service is agent-enabled, said web-browser transferring said 'first session id', together with the address of the service agent, to a user interface of said user terminal, said user terminal transferring said 'first session id' and service agent address to said personal assistant agent, and said personal assistant agent generating an agent message including a message id which is the same as said 'first session id', and using an agent communication protocol to communicate said agent message to said store agent and thereby inform said store agent that the message comes from the same source as said HTTP access
• the method may be further characterised by said interaction between said web-browser and said user interface is effected using Java
• Figure 1 diagrammatically illustrates, in the form of a block diagram, a high-level overview of the relationships between some basic functions/products related to an Agent-based Electronic Commerce Platform and Services,
• Figure 2 diagrammatically illustrates, in the form of a block diagram, a layered model of an Agent-based Service Platform
• Figure 3 shows message/event types for an Agent-based Auctioneer Service
• Figure 4 diagrammatically illustrates, in the form of a block diagram, a general layered architecture for a translation agent that translates between different agent protocols, or from/to traditional http-based web-sites,
• Figure 5 diagrammatically illustrates, in the form of a block diagram, a User Client Computer and a Merchant's Commercial Web Server and the manner in which a user can monitor and control his/her personal agent through a separate Telia
• FIG. 6 diagrammatically illustrates, in the form of a block diagram, the different software modules in the Telia WebButler
• FIG. 7 diagrammatically illustrates, in the form of a block diagram, a modified version of Figure 5 of the accompanying drawings, and
• FIG. 8 diagrammatically illustrates, in the form of a block diagram, a modified version of Figure 7 of the accompanying drawings
• the telecommunications system is adapted to provide
• AMP Agent- based Market Place
• the platform provided by the telecommunications network enables the session identifier used for the WWW communications to be reused in the agent communications, which overcomes the problems of existing agent orientated systems
• the telecommunications transmission system which is adapted to operate as a platform for an agent-based electronic market, includes a plurality of user terminals arranged for connection to the Internet, at least one service provider server, and a plurality of electronic shops
• the platform is arranged to support agent-based market interactions between a plurality of agent types
• the telecommunications system is adapted to synchronize a real-time session for a user on an agent-enabled web-site with communications between agents of said user and said web-site using duel session identification
• (a) AMP enables peer-to-peer autonomous communication between agents on the Internet These can be agents representing users wanting to buy and/or sell goods and services, merchants, brokers, etc..
• This approach has the advantage that any agent can initiate a communication with other agents, computer programs, at any time.
• the agents can understand the information they receive and take action autonomously They can, therefore, fulfill complex requests from their owner.
• the disadvantage is that additional data has to be created to support machine-to- machine communication because, at the present time, the web is structured to support man-machine and not machine-machine communication.
• AMP Based on its ability to support machine-to-machine communication, AMP makes it possible for users to specify, in a user-friendly manner, trigger-points when the user would like to come into the loop while the agent is working on a task. That could, for example, be when it is necessary to give an offer over a specified limit in a buying negotiation for a requested item.
• the agent Since the agent is executing on a network operator's servers, for example, Telia's servers in their telecommunications network, the user can access the agent through any device, for example, a home computer, a computer at the user's place of work, a mobile PDA, and may even obtain notifications through pagers, GSM/SMS, etc.
• a network operator's servers for example, Telia's servers in their telecommunications network
• the user can access the agent through any device, for example, a home computer, a computer at the user's place of work, a mobile PDA, and may even obtain notifications through pagers, GSM/SMS, etc
• Agents can interface services, such as, reputation services, payment services, logistic services etc.
• AMP Agent-based Market Place
• An Agent-based Electronic Commerce Service Platform supports Agent Applications with necessary mechanisms making it fast and easy to implement new types of agent functionality/behaviour for electronic commerce
• a layered architecture such as the layered model of an Agent-based Service Platform diagrammatically illustrated, in the form of a block diagram, in Figure 2 of the accompanying drawings can be used As illustrated in Figure 2, the different layers of the model are as follows
• Agent Specific Layer Where different behaviour/functionality for agent applications are implemented Typical examples are Telia WebButler, Telia InfoBroker, Telia MerchantAssist, Telia AgentFind, Telia Archive, and Telia Auction
• Agent-based Market Place (AMP) Service Platform focuses on supporting electronic commerce applications
• Figure 3 shows examples of messages managed in the Interaction Layer of Figure 2 for the auctioneer application
• Other messages/event types can be created if needed for other applications, such as, index service, credit reporting service etc
• Another important aspect is that not all agents on the Internet will be based on this platform It is, therefore, necessary to support an application that translates between different agent types That service is also important when the agent applications access information based on traditional http format
• Figure 4 of the accompanying drawings diagrammatically illustrates, in the form of a block diagram, the general layered architecture for this translation agent
• AgentFind A new type of index service, provided by Telia, which has similarities with the search engines on the web is called AgentFind.
• AgentFind The role of AgentFind is to inform agents ⁇ /ebButlers about other agents/WebButlers having corresponding interest profiles, in order to make it possible for those agents to find each other
• An important difference between AMPS and HTTP-based search engines is that this database will change much more rapidly It is, therefore, necessary to implement mechanisms in the ACP (Agent Communication Protocol) that support consistency management between the AgentFind database and the interests stored at the users WebButlers
• ACP Agent Communication Protocol
• Another key issue is the rating mechanism related to the level of conformity between the interest specifications of different WebButlers This mechanism has, for example, to take into consideration if specific parameters have been specified as mandatory, or optional
• Duel Session Identification is a mechanism which makes it possible to synchronize a real-time session for a user on a commercial Website with the dialogue between the user's WebButler and the commercial Web-site's corresponding Merchant Assist functionality This makes it possible to create personalized real-time promotions etc based on a user's actual interest profile
• ACP-HTTP is a mechanism which makes it possible for WebButler and other agents to utilize ordinary http-based information from conventional web-sites
• Agent-based Payment Manager/Adaptor implements the functionality needed for managing payments from autonomous agents.
• the Payment Manager mechanisms utilize basic payment mechanisms provided by, for example, SEMPER
• Agent-based Electronic Commerce Service Platform this is the technical architecture the AMP services are built upon It consist of agent specific layer, information layer, interaction layer and the message transfer layer
• Agent-based Market Place (AMP) services are as follows:
• the Telia WebButler Service has a user f ⁇ endly interface through which the user can interact with agent-based and conventional WWW-based services on the Internet
• the service is used through a separate window on the user's computer (see Figure 5 of the accompanying drawings)
• This means that the Telia WebButler can co-operate with other services that the user accesses through TCP/IP, for example, through his/her conventional web-browser (Netscape, Explorer, etc )
• the Telia WebButler can also operate when the owner is disconnected from the network through e-mail EDI messages etc
• WebButler The benefit of WebButler is that the agent at the user's server and the agent at the visited web-site can communicate interests and transfers basic data between each other. The result is that there is no need for the person concerned to manually type-in requested information at the site. An even larger benefit for the user is that the site knows about the user's interest This means that the user will be presented with, for him/her, valuable information directly by the site instead of receiving the standard information that all users receive This is not only an advantage for the user, since commercial web-sites can use this information for relationship marketing, so that this information is valuable for both parties
• FIG. 5 of the accompany drawings diagrammatically illustrates a User Client
• Telia WebButler Graphical User Interface
• the primary purpose of the Telia WebButler service is, however, to control and monitor the personal agent which operates on a net-based server This means that the user O 99/46700
• - 17 - can initiate processes for the agent through any suitable device available at the time, for example, a home computer, a computer at his/her place of work, a mobile PDA with a cellular connection to the Internet, etc
• any suitable device available at the time, for example, a home computer, a computer at his/her place of work, a mobile PDA with a cellular connection to the Internet, etc
• This for example, enables the user to specify a negotiation strategy for the agent, trigger-points when the user will be informed/involved in further decisions etc , and to order the agent to begin the negotiation/bidding
• the user can then disconnect himself/herself from the network and the agent will continue the task it is executing on a server for example, Telia's server, in the network
• the agent informs the user by means of the requested media This could be through a message on the Telia WebButler, for example, complemented with a message on the user's pager, GSM/SMS etc , if the user has identified the trigger-point as urgent.
• the user can then access his WebButler through any available suitable device, to analyze the received information and give the agent further directions
• the user can of course also elect to finish the bidding etc manually after the agent has completed the routine work necessary to reach this important point in the process
• Figure 6 diagrammatically illustrates the different software modules in the Agent Specific layer implementing, in this case, the WebButler
• the User Interface of Figure 6 implements a user friendly window on the users screen It is based on easily understandable icons for processes and events When the user clicks on the icons, he/she receives more detailed information on current status, collected information etc The user can, in addition, easily control the agent's action by specifying trigger-points etc
• the Interaction Plug-Ins of Figure 6 implement the User Interface to different, or improved, agent applications/behaviour
• an agent specialized for electronic auctions may include an interface towards index agents necessary to obtain information concerning the location of interesting auctions which include specified items, credit reporting service making sure that the auctioneer's operation is run by a solid company etc
• the Interaction Plug-Ins therefore provide basic mechanisms for O 99/46700
• the Session Manager of Figure 6 implements the management of the processes necessary to perform the requested tasks This includes creation of the messages necessary to perform the task, interpret received messages, halt the process and notify the owner of the agent if a t ⁇ gger-point has been met etc
• the logic necessary to perform the requested tasks is, therefore, implemented in the Session Manager module
• the Database of Figure 6 manages all data necessary for operating the Personal Agent Service This includes specifications of the owner's interests upon which the requested missions are based, messages received and transmitted, status information on the sessions, locally stored addresses to agents/agent sites which have worked well during earlier missions etc
• the database also stores the requested information which the agent collects through the mission in order to be able to present it to the owner as, and when, requested
• the Telia Merchant Assist includes the necessary functionality for providing realtime personalized promotions to visitors to commercial web sites
• the mechanisms also support real-time marketing to consumers after a visit to the store
• the Telia InfoBroker Service includes Telia AgentFind, Telia Archive and Telia Auction Telia MerchantAssist will have an interface to Telia Pay and Telia Distribute
• Telia Archive stores electronic contracts
• Telia Distribute integrates necessary functionality for the delivery services
• FIG. 7 of the accompanying drawings which is a modified version of Figure 5, illustrates, in the form of a block diagram, the manner in which interactions are effected between a User Client Computer and a Merchant's server
• the arrangement of Figure 7, includes two blocks, one of which is the User Client Computer (program) and the other one of which is the Merchant's Server The User Client
• the Computer includes a user interface, i e a Personal Assistant Service Graphical User Interface (PA-GUI), which is located adjacent to the User's Web-browser (Netscape Communicator), and a Personal Assistant Agent which may be located either on the User Client Computer, as shown in Figure 7, or somewhere else, for example, on an Internet service provider's server
• the Merchant's Server includes a Web-interface and a Store
• the Personal Assistant Agent communicates with the Web- browser in order to determine where the User is browsing and when an agent-enabled website has been accessed
• the Personal Assistant Agent also communicates with other agents when the User has accessed an agent-enabled web-site
• the procedure used for identification of a session on the WWW normally involves the use of an identifier which the Web-browser always sends, together with the HTTP- requests
• the Agent approach is quite similar
• the solution, according to the present invention, for overcoming this problem is to use the normal procedure for the WWW and for the session identifier, used for WWW communications, to be reused in the Agent communications (see Figure 8 of the accompanying drawings)
• Step 1 (Line 1) The User has accessed the Web-server for the required service and thus received the first session id, or Cookie, from the HTTP response The User's Web-browser now has the information concerning the Cookie (first session id)
• Step 2 (Line 2)
• the Web-page that the HTTP response contains has a code which identifies that the service is agent-enabled This is - 2 1 - done using Java and Java Script
• the Cookie information (first session id) is, therefore, given to the PA-GUI of the User Client Computer, together with the address of the service agent, using Java
• Step 3 (Line 3)
• the PA-GUI sends the Cookie information (first session id) and the address of the service agent to the Personal Assistant Agent of the User Client Computer
• Step 4 (Line 4)
• the Personal Assistant Agent generates an agent message and uses an agent communication protocol to communicate with the service agent (Store Agent)
• This message includes a message id, which is the same as the Cookie (session id of Step 1) This means that the service agent will know that the message comes from the same source as the HTTP access
• the server when a user accesses a merchant's server for a required service, the server will, in response to the user access, send a HTTP response, containing a 'first session id' to the user's web-browser
• the response also contains a code which identifies that the required service is agent-enabled
• the web-browser then transfers the 'first session id', together with an address of the service agent, to the user interface of the user terminal
• the user terminal transfers the 'first session id' and service agent address to the personal assistant agent which generates an agent message including a message id that is the same as the 'first session id', and uses an agent communication protocol to communicate the agent message to the store agent and to thereby inform the store agent that the message comes from the same source as said HTTP access
• the - 22 - interaction between the web-browser and the user interface is preferably effected using Java
• the present invention can be used for personalization when a user accesses an agent-enabled commercial web-site, for example, a store like amazon com, and will enable a personal assistant agent to send information about the user's interests to the commercial web-site This will enable the web-site to display and promote the products in which the user is directly interested Also, the invention can be used, together with the agent-enabled commercial web-site, for example, a store like amazon com, and will enable a personal assistant agent to send information about the user's interests to the commercial web-site This will enable the web-site to display and promote the products in which the user is directly interested Also, the invention can be used, together with the
• Personal Assistant Agent for automating interaction between a User and a store, for example, to transfer customer data, such as, the user's name, address and payment arrangements, which would otherwise have to be entered manually, when a purchase is completed

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• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
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• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
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• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
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• Data Exchanges In Wide-Area Networks (AREA)
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Citations (3)

• 1998
  • 1998-03-10 SE SE9800802A patent/SE512107C2/sv not_active IP Right Cessation
• 1999
  • 1999-03-09 EE EEP200000516A patent/EE04826B1/xx not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1999-03-09 EP EP99913788A patent/EP1062600A2/de not_active Ceased
  • 1999-03-09 WO PCT/SE1999/000354 patent/WO1999046700A2/en active Application Filing
• 2000
  • 2000-09-04 NO NO20004381A patent/NO318708B1/no not_active IP Right Cessation

Patent Citations (3)

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