METHOD, DEVICE, AND PROGRAM STORAGE DEVICE FOR AUTONOMOUS SOFTWARE LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT

摘要

A method of searching for and installing a software product on a device is provided. One or more capabilities needed by the device to be served by a software product are determined. The one or more capabilities needed by the device are communicated from a software life cycle management agent on the device to a yellow pages agent outside the device, the communicating comprising formulating a request comprising a list of the capabilities encoded in a description language that defines the capabilities semantically. Then locations of one or more software products matching the one or more capabilities needed by the device may be received from the yellow pages agent. One of the one or more software products to install may be selected based on automatically evaluated criteria. Then the selected software product may be downloaded using its received location, and the selected software product may be installed on the device.

主权项

1. A method of searching for and installing a software product on a device, the method comprising:
identifying one or more capabilities needed by the device to be served by a software product; communicating the one or more capabilities needed by the device from a software life cycle management agent on the device to one or more yellow pages agents outside the device, the communicating comprising formulating a request comprising a list of the capabilities encoded in a description language that defines the capabilities semantically, the request further including instructions as to how to determine possible software products having traits matching the needed capabilities, the instructions include a threshold indicating a number of needed capabilities that should be met by any software product the one or more yellow pages agents determine to be a match for the needed capabilities; receiving locations of one or more software products matching the one or more capabilities needed by the device from the one or more yellow pages agents; selecting one of the one or more software products to install based on automatically evaluated criteria; downloading the selected software product using its received location; and installing the selected software product on the device.