Managing computer network resources
AssigneeNetfuel,Inc
InventorJames D. Harlow
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Software agents are assigned goals in accordance with network policies that define a desired operational characteristic of a computer network. A software agent achieves its assigned goal by executing a predefined task. An assigned goal may be dynamically modified as necessary based on the actual operational characteristics of the network. The software agent may request further policy if it cannot achieve its assigned goal by performing the predefined task.
Claims36
A method of managing a computer network, comprising:
- assigning a goal to a software, wherein the software agent has its own runtime environment;
- is able to communicate with other software agents in the computer network;
- is capable of perceiving its own state;
- and is able to clone itself, and wherein the goal is a programmatic expression of a predefined task for the software agent;
- and
- monitoring the computer network;
- creating test policy and modeling a behavior of the computer network based on the test policy to determine an optimal policy for the computer network, including predicting a failure of a network component based on a prediction algorithm;
- wherein said modeling comprises determining appropriate policy based on the prediction;
- and
- dynamically modifying the assigned goal of the software agent by replacing the assigned goal based on the optimal policy;
- wherein the software agent comprises an autonomous agent operable to request further policy when it lacks an ability to perform the predefined task.
A computer network, comprising:
- a software agent having an assigned goal which is a programmatic expression of a predefined task for the software agent embodied in hardware;
- wherein the software agent has its own runtime environment;
- is able to communicate with other software agents in the computer network;
- is capable of perceiving its own state;
- and is able to clone itself;
- an agent support mechanism embodied in hardware to provide support to the agent;
- and
- a modeler embodied in hardware to create test policy and to model a behavior of the computer network based on the test policy thereby to determine an optimal policy for the computer network said modeler comprising a predictive algorithm to predict a failure of a network component;
- wherein the modeler determines appropriate policy based on the prediction;
- a network control mechanism to dynamically modify the assigned goal of the software agent by replacing the assigned goal based on the optimal policy;
- wherein the software agent comprises an autonomous agent operable to request further policy when it lacks an ability to perform the predefined task.
A machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions which when executed by a processor causes the processor to perform a method comprising:
- assigning a goal to a software agent;
- wherein the software agent has its own runtime environment;
- is able to communicate with other software agents in the computer network;
- is capable of perceiving its own state;
- and is able to clone itself;
- and comprises an autonomous agent operable to request further policy when it lacks an ability to perform the predefined task, and wherein the goal is a programmatic expression of a predefined task for the software agent;
- creating test policy and modeling a behavior of the computer network based on the test policy to determine an optimal policy for the computer network, including predicting a failure of a network component based on a predictive algorithm;
- wherein said modeling comprises determining appropriate policy based on the prediction;
- and
- dynamically modifying the assigned goal of the software agent according to a desired operational characteristic of the computer network by replacing the assigned goal based on the optimal policy.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.