Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Oracle America, Inc.

Rita Y Chen

William J Yeager

Juan C Soto

Embodiments of a mechanism for implementing mobile agents in peer-to-peer networks. An initiating peer may generate a mobile agent to perform one or more tasks on or gather information from other peers in the peer-to-peer network. The mobile agent may include an itinerary of peers that the mobile agent may visit. The mobile agent may be transmitted on communications channels in the peer-to-peer network to each peer on the itinerary in turn, and return to the initiating peer after visiting or attempting to visit each peer on the itinerary. In one embodiment, the mobile agent may traverse its itinerary via virtual communication channels (pipes) implemented according to a peer-to-peer platform. A mobile agent may include information identifying input pipes for each peer on its itinerary. Peers may generate and advertise input pipes for use by mobile agents.

Mobile agents in peer-to-peer networks

Embodiments of a system and method for using mobile agents in peer-to-peer networks to gather presence information for determining active peers in groups of peers. In one embodiment, a mobile agent may be launched by an initiating peer in a peer group to attempt to visit each member peer in a peer group. The itinerary of the mobile agent may include information for accessing each member peer of the peer group. The mobile agent may return to its initiating peer with a payload indicating which of the member peers it was successful in contacting and visiting. When the mobile agent returns to the originating peer, the originating peer may update presence information indicating presence of member peer nodes in the group in accordance with the indications provided by the mobile agent.

Presence detection using mobile agents in peer-to-peer networks

Embodiments of a decentralized, distributed trust mechanism that may be used in peer-to-peer platforms, to implement trust relationships based on data relevance between peers on a network and to implement trust relationships between peers and content and data (codat). In one embodiment, the trust mechanism may provide a trust spectrum of multiple levels wherein unique peer identities may be established to enable authentication and the assignment of the peers' associated access policies within a peer group. In one embodiment, the trust spectrum may have Certificate Authority signed certificates as a maximum level of security, and self-signed certificates as a minimum level of security. Since a certificate is one form of codat, in one embodiment the trust mechanism may be applied to a peer group member's collection of signed certificates for a given peer group.

Trust spectrum for certificate distribution in distributed peer-to-peer networks

A mobile agent may be provided for collaborative content control in peer-to-peer networks. A peer may launch a mobile agent including an itinerary of peers to be visited and indications of one or more documents that the peers are collaboratively editing. The mobile agent may visit peers indicated by the itinerary to collect version information for the document(s). The mobile agent may return the version information to the initiating peer, which may coordinate each of the document(s) on the peer to a most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent. Visited peers may use the payload to determine if their version of the document(s) are up to date and, if not, may add a version update request to the payload. The initiating peer may send the most recent version information to peers that added version update requests to the payload.

Collaborative content coherence using mobile agents in peer-to-peer networks

Embodiments may provide mechanisms for representing trust between peers or systems in decentralized networking environments including peer-to-peer networking environments. Trust may include both direct trust between two peers and trust in a pipeline of peers along which codat may be passed. Embodiments may provide a mechanism for a peer to represent and rate the trustworthiness of other peers as providers of codat relevant to the peer's interest. To evaluate trust in another peer as a provider of codats in the area of interest, trust may be represented with two components, confidence and risk. Embodiments may provide mechanisms for measuring the components and determining trust from the components. Embodiments may also provide mechanisms for feeding back trust information to the providing peer and for propagating trust information to other peers.

Representing trust in distributed peer-to-peer networks

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that provides virtual transport layer security on a virtual network to facilitate peer-to-peer communications. The system creates a first pipe that functions as a one-way input channel into a first peer. Next, the system associates a first peer identifier with the first pipe and advertises the availability of this first pipe. A second peer connects to this first pipe to communicate with the first peer. The system also creates a second pipe at the second peer, and a second peer identifier is associated with this second pipe. The first peer connects to this second pipe to communicate with the second peer. The first pipe and the second pipe form a virtual connection through which the first peer and the second peer can communicate securely.

Method and apparatus to facilitate virtual transport layer security on a virtual network

Embodiments of a decentralized, distributed trust mechanism that may be used in various networking platforms including peer-to-peer platforms, to implement trust relationships between and among peers and to implement trust relationships between peers and content and data (codat). Protocols and methods may be provided for determining, disseminating and updating trust. For participating peers, trust may be biased towards data relevance. Trust may have multiple components or factors, which may include peer confidence, codat confidence and risk components, and embodiments may provide for the inclusion of factors of trust based on a peer group's interests and/or group content relevance. Embodiments may be used for a variety of applications in which trust may be based on the norm for social interaction between participating peers.

Trust mechanisms for a peer-to-peer network computing platform

Embodiments of a system and method for using mobile agents for managing distribution of content in peer-to-peer networks. An initiating peer node may launch a mobile agent including an itinerary of a group of peer nodes configured to receive and share content from a distributor. The mobile agent may visit the peer nodes on the itinerary to search for and collect information on distributor content stored on the visited peer nodes. The mobile agent may return the payload to the initiating peer node after completing the itinerary. In one embodiment, the mobile agent may include authentication information, and each visited peer node may access the authentication information to verify the mobile agent as authorized by the distributor. The initiating peer node may examine the information provided by the mobile agent to detect unauthorized copies of the distributor content.

Managing distribution of content using mobile agents in peer-topeer networks

Embodiments of a decentralized, distributed trust mechanism that may be used in various networking platforms including peer-to-peer platforms, to implement trust relationships between and among nodes on a network and to implement trust relationships between nodes and content and data (codat). Protocols and methods may be provided for determining, disseminating and updating trust. For participating nodes, trust may be biased towards data relevance. Trust may have multiple components or factors, which may include node confidence, codat confidence and risk components, and embodiments may provide for the inclusion of factors of trust based on groups of nodes' common interests and/or group content relevance. Embodiments may be used for a variety of applications in which trust may be based on the norm for social interaction between participating nodes.

Distributed trust mechanism for decentralized networks

Embodiments of a system and method for using mobile agents to gather trust information for evaluating trust in peer-to-peer networks. A peer node may launch a mobile agent on a network including an itinerary of peer nodes to be visited by the mobile agent and an indication of an area of interest. The mobile agent may determine if a visited peer node stores trust evaluations for other peer nodes as providers of codats relevant to the area of interest and, if so, the trust evaluations may be stored as payload data in the mobile agent. After completing the itinerary, the mobile agent may return the payload to the initiating peer node. The initiating peer node may use the trust evaluations collected by the mobile agent in determining or adjusting trust evaluations for peer nodes as providers of codats relevant to the area of interest.

Peer trust evaluation using mobile agents in peer-to-peer networks

System and method for representing and rate the trustworthiness of peers as providers of content and data (codats) relevant to the peers' interests. In one embodiment, trust may be propagated through transaction pipes (paths) along which codats located in a search for codats relevant to an area of interest may be accessed by the requestor. In some embodiments, the trust a peer has in another peer as a provider of codats may be a function of the trust values of the provider peer and all other peers on a path. If there are multiple paths, trust in the provider peer may be an average of the trust values for all the paths. Trust in a provider peer may be used to determine confidence in codats provided by the peer. Embodiments may provide mechanisms for feeding back trust information to the providing peer and for propagating trust information to other peers.

Growing community of inventors

Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Rita Y Chen