Network distributed tracking wire transfer protocol

• US 20070011267A1
• Filed: 02/13/2006
• Published: 01/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kove IO, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Econnectix LLC
• Inventors: Overton, John, Bailey, Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 7,814,170 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/148 File search processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4552 Lookup mechanisms between a plurality of directories; Synchronisation of directories, e.g. metadirectories

Abstract

A network distributed tracking wire transfer protocol for storing and retrieving data across a distributed data collection. The protocol includes a location string for specifying the network location of data associated with an entity in the distributed data collection, and an identification string for specifying the identity of an entity in the distributed data collection. According to the protocol, the length of the location string and the length of the identification string are variable, and an association between an identification string and a location string can be spontaneously and dynamically changed. The network distributed tracking wire transfer protocol is application independent, organizationally independent, and geographically independent. A method for using the protocol in a distributed data collection environment and a system for implementing the protocol are also provided.

Claims

1-16. -16. (canceled)

17. A system for managing data stored in a distributed network, the system comprising:

a data repository configured to store data, wherein the data is associated with an identifier string;

a data location server network comprising a plurality of data location servers, at least one of the plurality of data location servers containing location information associated with the identifier string, wherein each of the plurality of data location servers comprises a portion of the location information in the distributed data collection based on a hash function used to organize the location information across the plurality of data location servers.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the location information comprises any portion of a hash table generated with the hash function.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the data repository comprises a plurality of data repositories and wherein each of the plurality of data location servers are configured to be responsive to a request to store data in a data repository to execute the hash function and store the data on one of the plurality of data repositories in the distributed network based on a result of the hash function.

20. A system for managing location information and providing location information to location queries, the system comprising:

a location server configured to recognize a transfer protocol comprising an identifier and at least one location associated with the identifier, wherein the identifier uniquely specifies an entity and wherein each location specifies a location of data in a network pertaining to the entity;

wherein the location server contains location information corresponding to at least one entity, the location information formatted according to the transfer protocol; and

programming logic stored on the location server responsive to a location query identifying a desired entity to return a location message, the location message comprising locations associated with the desired entity, wherein the location server returns the location message if the location server contains location information for the desired entity.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the location server returns a redirect message if the queried location server lacks location information for the desired entity, the redirect message comprising a list of at least one other location server known to have location information relevant to the location query.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the list of at least one other location server comprises a list of location servers in the plurality of location servers and a corresponding list of each of the entities having location information on the respective location servers.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein each of the location servers stores at least a portion of a total amount of location information on a persistent storage device.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein the location information in the location server is maintained in an indexed location store.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the location store comprises a string store indexed by a hash table.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the location store comprises a string store indexed by a hash table distributed across a plurality of clients.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the location store comprises a string store indexed by a hash table distributed across a plurality of servers.

28. The system of claim 24, wherein the location query identifying the desired entity comprises a unique identifier for the desired entity, and wherein the programming logic stored on the location server further comprises programming logic for applying an index function to the identifier to retrieve at least a portion of the locations associated with the unique identifier in the location store.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the location store comprises a string store and the index function comprises a hash function.

30. A method of handling location queries in a network, the network comprising a plurality of location servers containing location information correlating each of a plurality of identifiers with at least one location, the method comprising:

receiving a location query from a client at one of the plurality of location servers, the location query requesting an identifier'"'"'s location;

sending a location response message to the client if the queried location server contains location information relevant to an entity identified in the query, the location response message comprising location information identifying at least one application server containing information relevant to the entity identified in the query; and

sending a redirect message to the client if the queried location server does not contain data location information relevant to the entity identified in the query, the redirect message comprising containing location information relevant to the entity identified in the query.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising applying information in the location query from the client to an indexing function to determine if the queried location server contains location information relevant to the entity identified in the query.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein each of the plurality of location servers comprises an indexed table of identifiers and associated locations, and wherein applying information in the location query comprises applying an identifier in the location query to a hash function.