Bellsouth Corporation

Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation

Dewey Charles Anderson

David J Anderson

Senis Busayapongchai

Audrey Dibrell

Michael R Grizzard

Retrieving information from a database using an index of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) tags and metafiles. The index includes XML tags that correspond to domains and categories. The domains and categories are selected to facilitate searching of the database. An XML tag can have a corresponding metafile that includes XML tags for related domains and categories. The metafile can also establish a hierarchy for the tags within the metafile. Each record of the database includes an index component which lists the domain tags and category tags that are associated with the record. When a search request is received, the request is parsed to identify the terms in the request. The terms are predetermined and generally correspond to the domains and categories of the index. The terms are mapped to tags. Once the appropriate tags are identified, then the metafiles that correspond to those tags are identified. The metafiles can be used to identify additional tags that are relevant to the search. The identified tags are combined to create a unique key. The key is used to search the database to locate records that include the tags in their index component.

System and method for retrieving information from a database using an index of XML tags and metafiles

Systems and methods for arranging records in search results to be provided in response to a data inquiry of a database. After search results including records are received, a determination is made with respect to the order of the records in the search results. This determination may be based on various factors such as the destination of the search results, the preferred status of certain records over other records, a marketing determination with respect to the records, a frequency determination with respect to the number of times that a record or records may have already been provided in response to data inquiries, a weighting factor determination or a combination of one or more of these factors. In response to the determination of the order of the records in the search results, the records then are arranged into ordered records based on the determination. This order may be an alphabetical order, a preferred order based on the preferred status of certain records over other records, a least frequent first order, a highest weighting factor first order, or a combination of these orders. The search results with the records arranged into ordered records are then provided in response to the data inquiry.

Arranging records in a search result to be provided in response to a data inquiry of a database

Routing information between an origination module and a destination module using a routing architecture. After an origination module (OM) receives information, a packet is transmitted to a routing architecture (RA) for routing to a destination module (DM) designated by the router packet. The RA interprets the router packet and adaptively routes the router packet to the DM so that the router packet is quickly processed by the DM. If the DM's queue is empty and the DM is not processing any other packets, the RA places the router packet in the queue and the DM reads its queue to process the router packet. If there is another router packet being processed by the DM, the RA adapts by placing the router packet in the queue. Once processing of the other router packet is complete, the DM processes the router packet in the queue. If there is already another router packet pending within the DM's queue, the RA adapts by creating another DM in memory to process the router packet. If the router packet is not processed by the DM within a predetermined amount of time, the RA adapts by sending an interrupt to cancel processing within the DM and ensure that the router packet is next to be processed.

Using a routing architecture to route information between an orignation

After an origination module (OM) receives information, a packet is transmitted to a routing architecture (RA) for routing to a destination module (DM) designated by the router packet. The RA interprets the router packet and adaptively routes the router packet to the DM so that the router packet is quickly processed by the DM. If the DM's queue is empty and the DM is not processing any other packets, the RA places the router packet in the queue and the DM reads its queue to process the router packet. If there is another router packet being processed by the DM, the RA adapts by placing the router packet in the queue. Once processing of the other router packet is complete, the DM processes the router packet in the queue. If there is already another router packet pending within the DM's queue, the RA adapts by creating another DM in memory to process the router packet. If the router packet is not processed by the DM within a predetermined amount of time, the RA adapts by sending an interrupt to cancel processing within the DM and ensure that the router packet is next to be processed. Elements corresponding to the router packet's data components may be rearranged to an optimized order when adaptively routing the router packet. In the optimized order, processing of the router packet is made quicker.

Routing information within an adaptive routing architecture of an

An index associated with a database is dynamically processed in an information retrieval system to create a set of questions for use when processing a data inquiry from a user. The index, a structured guide used when searching the database, has different information domains. After one of these domains is selected, a particular order of the index categories within the selected domain is determined, typically by referring to the order lookup table within the index. A script corresponds to the selected domain. Within the script, there are questions corresponding to each index category within the selected domain. These questions are dynamically used to prompt the user. Only the questions corresponding to active index categories are arranged into the set of questions having a question set order corresponding to the particular order of the index categories. In an iterative process, the first question is identified and used to prompt the user to select a term from a scaled down vocabulary of terms (i.e., only those terms associated with the first question and corresponding first index category). Upon selecting the term, a search of the database is performed by the search engine module based upon the selected term. If there is too much information returned from the search, the next question is identified and the iterative process is repeated.

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Dewey Charles Anderson