Context information management system

Abstract

The context information management system enables the management of context information while maintaining the security of user information. It includes a user domain management server that manages a list of domains in which users have an account, and a one-time account management server that manages temporarily issued one-time accounts for a user's account. For an account information notifying request from a client, it notifies an account group ID corresponding to the user ID, and a one-time account issued for the account group ID to the client, thereby enabling the management of the user's account and context information while hiding the user ID.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a network block diagram of a context information management system showing one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a user domain management server;

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of a one-time account management server;

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of a context management server;

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram of a client;

FIG. 6 is a network block diagram for explaining account information acquisition processing initiated by user clients;

FIG. 7 is a network block diagram for explaining account information acquisition processing initiated by context management servers;

FIG. 8 is a network block diagram for explaining context information acquisition processing;

FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram for explaining account information acquisition processing initiated by user clients;

FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram for explaining account information acquisition processing initiated by context management servers;

FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram for explaining context information acquisition processing;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a user domain management server;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a one-time account management server;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a context management server;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a client;

FIG. 16 is a list of packet formats; and

FIG. 17 is a sequence diagram for explaining call request processing.

Claims

1. A context information management system that manages context information of a user having an account for each of plural domains, comprising: a user domain management server that holds a list of domains in which the user has an account;a one-time account management server that receives a request from the user domain management server, and manages temporary one-time accounts;a context management server that manages context information for the accounts of the user; andclients that provide the context information to other users,wherein the user domain management server sends a one-time account notifying request to the one-time account management server according to a request from the other users,wherein the one-time account management server has a function to notify account information to the other users based on one-time account submission of the context management server, andwherein the context management server issues a one-time account based on a request from the user domain management server.

2. The context information management system according to claim 1, wherein the user domain management server includes a user domain information table that stores a list of domains in which the user has an account, and based on the request of the other users, requests context management servers belonging to the list to submit a one-time account to the one-time account management server.

3. The context information management system according to claim 2, wherein the one-time account management server manages a user ID being an identifier of the user, an account group ID being an identifier of the whole of accounts owned by the user, and the one-time account in association with one another, forwards a context information notifying request for the one-time account from the other users to the context management servers that submitted the one-time account, and forwards context information notification of the context management servers to the proper clients.

4. The context information management system according to claim 3, wherein the context management server, based on a request from the user domain management server, issues a temporary one-time account for a user ID by the user domain management server, and submits a set of an account group ID specified by the user domain management server and the issued one-time account to the one-time account management server.

5. The context information management system according to claim 4, wherein the context management server sends context information to the one-time account management server, based on a context information notifying request for a one-time account from the one-time account management server.

6. The context information management system according to claim 5, wherein the context management server, based on a request from the client, for a call request with only a user ID specified, collects account information and context information of the user ID, and decides a called client from the contents of the context information.

7. The context information management system according to claim 6, wherein the client sends an account information notifying request to the user domain management server, based on a request from the other users.