Patent ID: 8549122

Claim:
A computer-enabled system to support the communication within a distributed network, comprising: one or more microprocessors; an agent running on the one or more microprocessors, wherein the agent includes an agent facade that enables the agent to communicate with other applications; an agent core that manages one or more messages that are distributed to one or more destinations by the agent using different transports, wherein each said transport is a combination of a network socket and a transport protocol, and wherein the agent core includes a service level assurance manager that prioritizes the one or more messages according to a priority model; and a network layer that handles low-level network operations, wherein the network layer is capable of determining a value for a cost associated with each said transport for distributing the one or more messages to the one or more destinations, based on a cost function that describes behavior of underline resources, wherein the cost function for each said transport contains a setup cost and a message cost, wherein the setup cost includes at least a cost to create a network socket in said transport and a cost to initialize a protocol stack for a transport protocol in said transport, and wherein the message cost includes at least a cost to send the one or more messages to the one or more destinations via said transport; and finding a least expensive way to send the one or more messages to the one or more destinations.