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US 7,676,419 B2Granted
Caching mechanism to optimize a bidding process used to select resources and services
AssigneeMitel Networks Corporation
InventorsMichael Weiss, Babak Esfandiari
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A caching mechanism is provided for use by a Bid Manager in a multi-agent resource allocation bidding system. The caching mechanism stores the most recent bids issued by one or more Bidders for a given bidding context. The cache is updated using a notification mechanism.
Claims17
A storage medium storing a set of program instructions executable on a data processing device and usable to create agents and adapters for optimizing a bidding process for resources, the set of program instructions comprising:
- instructions for creating a bid manager agent for issuing a call for bids for usage of said resources, receiving said bids and selecting a best bid from among said bids, wherein each of said bids defines a predetermined context;
- instructions for creating a plurality of bidder agents for issuing said bids according to predetermined bidding policies in response to said call for bids, wherein one of said bidder agents issues said best bid and provides said resources upon selection of said best bid by said bid manager agent;
- and
- instructions for creating a plurality of resource adapters for providing a uniform interface to access application program interfaces of said resources, one of said resource adapters being a caching adapter for maintaining cached bids for predetermined contexts from predetermined ones of said bidder agents, and for receiving from said bid manager agent said call for bids and issuing said cached bids to said bid manager agent instead of requiring said predetermined bidder agents to issue said bids, and a no-caching adapter for receiving from said bid manager agent said call for bids, re-issuing said call for bids to ones of said bidder agents other than said predetermined bidder agents, receiving said bids from said ones of said bidder agents other than said predetermined bidder agents and sending said bids to said bid manager agent.
1 more element
An optimized method of acquiring bids from a plurality of bidder agents for resources, comprising the steps of:
- issuing a request from a bid manager agent for bids for usage of said resources, wherein each of said bids defines a predetermined context;
- accessing a cache of stored bids and related contexts to determine whether said cache contains bids defining said predetermined context;
- issuing a call for bids to said bidder agents in connection with which no bids defining said predetermined context are stored in said cache, in response to which said bidder agents return bids to said bid manager agent and said bids are stored in said cache along with said predetermined context;
- and
- retrieving from said cache said bids defining said predetermined context previously stored by said bidder agents.
2 more elements
An apparatus for optimizing a bidding process for resources, the apparatus comprising:
- a bid manager agent comprising means for issuing a call to bidder agents for bids for usage of said resources, means for receiving said bids and means for selecting a best bid from among said bids, wherein each of said bids defines a predetermined context;
- a plurality of resource adapters for providing a uniform interface to access application program interfaces of said resources, one of said resource adapters being a caching adapter comprising means for maintaining cached bids for predetermined contexts from predetermined ones of said bidder agents, receiving from said bid manager agent said call for bids and issuing said cached bids to said bid manager agent instead of requiring said predetermined bidder agents to issue said bids, and a no-caching adapter comprising means for receiving from said bid manager agent said call for bids, re-issuing said call for bids to ones of said bidder agents other than said predetermined bidder agents, receiving said bids from said ones of said bidder agents other than said predetermined bidder agents and sending said bids to said bid manager agent.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.