| 摘要 |
<p>A system is provided which comprises a network of computer nodes (100), each of which includes a data store (130) and an agent interface (110) for execution of autonomous agents. The autonomous agents move independently among the network nodes, using the agent interface at each node to execute their functions. Various agents are employed to implement different functions. Index agents (122) transfer index fields to and from the data stores of the nodes according to a transfer criterion that is biased to aggregate index blocks (142) into index files on one or more nodes. Replication agents (128) replicate index files on different nodes to make the system robust against node loss. Balance agents (124) break large index files into smaller subfiles, to prevent overloading any nodes of the network. Query agents (126) locate and retrieve index file entries that match a query criterion. The different agents manage index and data information without need for a central organizing computer.</p> |
