Patent ID: 8347298
Filing Date: 2013-01-01
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for use in a system including: a plurality of entities (agents) each adapted to exhibit a specific performance while consuming a resource; a mechanism adapted to supply the resource to each of said entities; a mechanism provided in each of said entities to accept the resource; and means provided in each of said entities to carry out a committing function of effecting said specific performance, or an actuation device provided in each of said entities to effect said specific performance, said method being designed to satisfy a constraint on an aggregated resource to be input from said resource supply mechanism into the entire system, and simultaneously control the respective specific performances of said entities, said method comprising: providing a network adapted to connect between respective ones of said entities so as to allow data about the resource consumption and the specific performance in each of said entities to be exchanged therebetween, and communication means having a function of transmitting and receiving said data; assigning to each of said entities a target index with which said specific performance is to be brought into conformity within an allowable range around said target index; assigning to each of said entities an interval reference index during which the resource is input into said entity; providing means for carrying out a function of measuring the specific performance or the resource consumption in each of said entities; providing to each of said entities means for carrying out a software function of autonomously and cooperatively determining a strategy; allowing said entities to take turns to perform said software function, wherein said software function includes, when each of said entities is assigned with an initial index of said interval reference index, and dynamically shifted between two roles of a server and a client, dynamically performing four actions of said server consisting of bidding, evaluating, committing and shifting, or an action of said client consisting of reporting, so as to allow said entities to distributedly perform a processing of determining a strategy for the entire system; and wherein the software function in any selected one of said entities to whom said role of said server is delegated according to said shifting action, further comprises: