Specifying predicted utility of information in a network

摘要

A method for specifying utility in an information delivery system having data sources and receiving nodes includes specifying utility for a set of possible information delivery patterns of data samples, where the specification of the utility depends on characteristics of delivery patterns observed by a receiving node, if any, located at a specified location.

主权项

1. A method for specifying utility in an information delivery system having data sources and receiving nodes, comprising:
identify, using a computer acting as a data source, a set of possible delivery patterns for data samples originating at and transmitting from the data source, the delivery patterns including specified locations for receiving nodes; predict, using the computer, a possibility of a receiving node existing at the specified locations; determine, using the computer, characteristics of delivery patterns observed by the receiving node located at the specified locations; specify, using the computer, a utility measure of usefulness of the information contained in the data sample using a generic utility function for the set of possible delivery patterns for data samples based upon the possibility and characteristics; converting the utility measure to a microutility, wherein a microutility assigns a dynamically changing priority for each individual data sample in the delivery pattern and travels with the data samples; and assigning each data sample from a same source a different microutility according to a selected delivery pattern.