Message multicast method and computer

A computer comprising:

• an execution environment for a plurality of mobile request handling agents;
• a message monitor for receiving a packet, comprising a retrieval request message and non-address preferential destination information designated by a user, from an agent being active in the execution environment for said mobile agents, and for dynamically creating a list of destinations that can respond to said retrieval request, said list comprising more than one of said plurality of mobile agents to whom said message is to be sent by referring to said retrieval request and said non-address preferential destination information, and for multicasting said messages to said list of more than one of said plurality of mobile request handling agents determined as destination agents for responding to said retrieval request;
• and
• a storage device storing a messaging policy data defining priorities of agents to which said message can be sent;
• wherein said message monitor determines, by using said priorities of agents defined in said messaging policy data and pairs of agent names and priorities included in said non-address preferential destination information, destination agents from an agent having highest priority.

A storage medium for storing a program executable by a machine for causing the machine to perform method steps for multicasting a retrieval request message to more than one of a plurality of mobile request handling agents, said method comprising the steps of:

• receiving a packet comprising a retrieval request message and non-address preferential destination information for said retrieval request as designated by a user;
• dynamically creating a list of destinations that can respond to said retrieval request, said list comprising more than one of said plurality of mobile request handling agents to whom said message is to be sent, by referring to said retrieval request and said non-address preferential destination information;
• and
• sending said message to said list of more than one of said plurality of mobile request handling agents determined as destinations for responding to said retrieval request,
• wherein said determining step comprises referring to messaging policy data defining priorities of agents to which said message can be sent, and further comprises a step of:
• using said priorities of agents defined in said messaging policy data and pairs of agent names and priorities included in said non-address preferential destination information to determine destination agents from an agent having highest priority.