Highly scalable, peer-based, real-time agent architecture

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022012102-A1
Application number	US-202117369290-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 7, 2021
Priority date	Jul 7, 2020
Publication date	Jan 13, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system architecture that synthesizes agent environments and virtualization environments to provide for a highly scalable, peer-to-peer real-time agent architecture. The agent environment enables agents participating in a shared experience to be peers of one another. Agents can choose which agents they want to peer by meeting in the agent environment and using published information determine which other agents they want to peer with to communicate stream source data therebetween. Virtualization environments are a mechanism for executing applications (“stream sources”). Any one or more of available virtualization environments (e.g., cloud infrastructure) may be selected in accordance with predetermined criteria to execute stream sources. In addition, non-virtualized environments (e.g., physical devices) may be utilized to run the stream sources in accordance with deployment criteria. As such, processes may be run over a large number of possibly different environments to provide novel end-user solutions and greater scaling of resources.

First claim

What is claimed:

1 . A platform for scaling peer-based agents, comprising:
a platform API through which all interactions with the platform flow and are authenticated; a console to which clients connect through the platform API to interact with the platform; an application repository that stores stream sources and descriptors, the descriptors providing information about how to run the steam sources in one or more virtualization environments; and an agent environment that provides a mechanism for one or more agents to determine from published information about other agents, which of the other agents the one or more agents want to peer with to communicate stream source data therebetween using peer-to-peer connections, whereby the platform communicates to one or more virtualization providers that are responsible for computing infrastructure within the one or more virtualization environments to scale resources in accordance with requirements of the stream sources.

2 . The platform of claim 1 , wherein the agents connected to the agent environment coordinate signaling information to start the peer-to-peer connection.

3 . The platform of claim 2 , wherein peered agents perform bi-directional synchronization of messages and event information.

4 . The platform of claim 2 , wherein streaming video is communicated over the peer-to-peer connection.

5 . The platform of claim 1 , wherein the stream sources and their associated descriptors are replicated from the application repository to the one or more virtualization environments, and wherein the virtualization providers abstract the details of the one or more virtualization environments from the platform.

6 . The platform of claim 5 , wherein the clients connect to the console using a platform SDK to make requests to launch stream sources in the one or more virtualization environments.

7 . The platform of claim 5 , wherein the platform optimizes a selection of a particular virtualization environment to run the stream sources in accordance with predetermined criteria.

8 . The platform of claim 7 , wherein the predetermined criteria include latency, cost, a geographic location of the virtualization environment, and resource availability.

9 . The platform of claim 1 , wherein the platform API is adapted to receive API calls from the virtualization providers to register the one or more virtualization environments with the platform, and wherein the one or more virtualization environments have differing characteristics.

10 . The platform of claim 1 , further comprising a single sign-on mechanism that communicates with a platform identity component to perform the authentication.

11 . A scalable, peer-to-peer based agent architecture, comprising:
a platform that interfaces to external entities using a platform API, the platform including an application repository that stores stream sources and associated descriptors, an agent environment and a developer console; virtualization environments that each execute stream sources to produce output data, wherein virtualization providers register the virtualization environments with the platform, wherein the stream sources and associated descriptors are replicated from the platform to the virtualization environments; wherein one or more agents connect to the agent environment and use published information about other agents to determine which of the other agents the one or more agents want to peer with, and wherein peered agents communicate the output data therebetween using a peer-to-peer connection.

12 . The architecture of claim 11 , wherein the output data is streaming video and the peer-to-peer connection implements a streaming protocol.

13 . The architecture of claim 11 , wherein the platform further comprises a single sign-on mechanism that communicates with a platform identity component to perform the authentication.

14 . The architecture of claim 11 , wherein the agent environment provides a mechanism for the one or more agents to subscribe to notifications from each other, send messages to each other, and share data with each other.

15 . The architecture of claim 14 , wherein the one or more agents connected to the agent environment coordinate signaling information to start the peer-to-peer connection.

16 . The architecture of claim 11 , wherein the platform optimizes a selection of a particular one of the virtualization environments based on predetermined criteria.

17 . The architecture of claim 16 , wherein the predetermined criteria include latency, cost, a geographic location of the virtualization environment, and resource availability.

18 . The architecture of claim 11 , wherein the associated descriptors are used to configure the virtualization environments.

19 . The architecture of claim 18 , wherein the associated descriptors contain environmental variables and runtime arguments to execute the stream source.

20 . The architecture of claim 11 , wherein the application repository contains version information associated with the stream sources.

21 . The architecture of claim 11 , wherein a platform SDK provides a set of tools to enable users to interact with the console.

22 . The architecture of claim 11 , wherein a request is received at the console to launch a stream source at a specified one of the virtualization environments in the associated descriptors.

23 . The architecture of claim 11 , wherein the virtualization environments are any environment in which agents and their related processes are executed.

24 . The architecture of claim 23 , wherein the virtualization environments are one of a cloud-based infrastructure, an on-premises infrastructure, a private data center, a desktop computing device, a laptop computing device, a smart phone, an Internet appliance, and an Internet of Things (IoT) device.

25 . The architecture of claim 23 , wherein the virtualization environments convey information to the platform through the virtualization providers as to whether the virtualization environments can serve a particular stream source.

26 . The architecture of claim 11 , wherein the virtualization environments provides a process context in which the stream source and an associated agent execute to stream the output data to one or more second agents communicating with the associated agent over a respective peer-to-peer connection.

27 . The architecture of claim 11 , wherein virtualization providers within the virtualization environments provide virtualization services to the platform and abstract the details of the virtualization environment from the platform in order to execute the stream sources.

28 . The architecture of claim 11 , wherein virtualization providers register the virtualization environment with the platform to inform the platform what region the virtualization environments are in, provide utilization information to the platform, and accept requests to launch stream sources from the platform.

29 . The architecture of claim 28 , wherein the virtualization providers dispatch the request to launch the stream source to an available resource within the virtualization environment to execute the stream source and the associated agent.

30 . The architecture of claim 11 , wherein the agents perform data acquisition using the peer-to-peer connections, and
wherein th

Assignees

• Calgary Scient Inc

Inventors

• Jarabek Christopher James
• Stephure Matthew James
• Viggers Kevin
• Vyas Ashit Ashvinkumar
• Lopes Lucas Amaral
• Wright Owen James
• Wielebnowski Jacek
• Crist Matthew James Louis
• Hong Joshua Sung-Ryoung
• Lai Chung Tai

Classifications

• G06F9/455

  Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines · CPC title

• G06F2009/4557

  Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing · CPC title

• G06F9/44521

  Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading · CPC title

• G06F8/36

  Software reuse · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title