At+t Corp.

Lucent Technologies Inc.

At&t Bell Laboratories

At&t Intellectual Property I, LP

University of Michigan

International Business Machines Corporation

University System of Maryland

National Science Foundation

Hosagrahar Visvesvaraya Jagadish

Inderpal Singh Mumick

Divesh Srivastava

Alexandros Biliris

Michael Rabinovich

Nikolaos Koudas

Euthimios Panagos

Gisli Hjalmtysson

Mark Alan Jones

Frederick Douglis

Gaurav Banga

Jignesh M Patel

Shurug Ali Al-Khalifa

Yuqing Wu

Shanmugavelayutham Muthukrishnan

Sundararajarao Sudarshan

Christos N Faloutsos

Ramarao Kanneganti

Dongwon Lee

Dimitra Vista

Murali Aravamudan

Mark Jeffrey Foladare

Shelley Betty Goldman

Theodore Donald Johnson

Rajeev R Rastogi

Yunyao Li

Abraham Silberschatz

Guy A Story, Jr

Scott C Knauer

Eric D Petajan

Kiem-Phong Vo

Alon Yitzchak Levy

Antonio DeSimone

Raymond Ng

Nikolaos Anerousis

Abhaya Asthana

Rakesh Agrawal

Lawrence O'Gorman

Nikolaos Dimitrios Sidriopoulos

Byoung-Kee Yi

Kiem Phong Vo

Jonathan A Chandross

Daniel Lin

Gisli Hj&aacute;lmtysson

David S Fox

Christopher J Baik

Xiaolei Qian

Philip Russell Korn

Shaul Dar

A natural language interface for databases (NLIDB) component of a database-management system receives a user-submitted natural-language query. The NLIDB parses the query into keywords and maps each keyword onto a corresponding query fragment that identifies a predicate of a non-join condition, or other type of expression, of a structured query. The NLIDB selects an optimal mapping for each keyword with the aid of a Query Fragment Graph (QFG) that counts the number of occurrences of each fragment, and the number of co-occurrences of each pair of fragments, in previously received structured queries. The NLIDB then uses the QFG, optionally augmented by contextual data, to select join paths most likely to be consistent with the semantic intent of the user. The NLIDB generates a structured query that incorporates the mapped query fragments and selected join paths and forwards. The structured the query is then forwarded to downstream DBMS components.

Natural-language database interface with automated keyword mapping and join-path inferences

Structural join mechanisms provide efficient query pattern matching. In one embodiment, tree-merge mechanisms are provided. In another embodiment, stack-tree mechanisms are provided.

Method of pattern searching

Approximate substring indexing is accomplished by decomposing each string in a database into overlapping 'positional q-grams', sequences of a predetermined length q, and containing information regarding the 'position' of each q-gram within the string (i.e., 1q-gram, 4q-gram, etc.). An index is then formed of the tuples of the positional q-gram data (such as, for example, a B-tree index or a hash index). Each query applied to the database is similarly parsed into a plurality of positional q-grams (of the same length), and a candidate set of matches is found. Position-directed filtering is used to remove the candidates which have the q-grams in the wrong order and/or too far apart to form a &#x201c;verified&#x201d; output of matching candidates. If errors are permitted (defined in terms of an edit distance between each candidate and the query), an edit distance calculation can then be performed to produce the final set of matching strings.

Method of performing approximate substring indexing

The apparent speed of a connection between a browser at a user station and a proxy or gateway on a network such as the Internet is increased by providing a local proxy at the user station which interacts with a remote proxy. While the remote proxy is retrieving a newly requested World Wide Web page, for example, from the appropriate content provider, it may also be sending to the local proxy a stale cached version of that page. When the new version of the page is finally retrieved, the remote proxy determines the differences between the new version and the stale version, and, assuming the differences do not exceed the new page in size, sends the differences to the local proxy which then reconstructs the new page from the differences and the stale version. The local proxy delivers the new page to the browser, which need not even be aware that a local proxy exists; it is aware only that it received the page it requested. Because computational speed and power are frequently higher and cheaper than transmission speed, the apparent speed of the connection between the user station and the network has been increased at modest cost.

Method for transferring and displaying data pages on a data network

A method and system facilitate telephony over computer based networks. The parties to a telephone call need not have the same telephone application software capabilities before the call is initiated nor does the network have to provide standard signaling. Instead, in accordance with the method and system one of the parties defines to the other party the encoding/decoding technique to be used in the processing of the call. The definition can be either by supplying a copy of the application to the other party or by providing the other party with an indirect reference to where the application can be obtained.

Method and apparatus for providing telephony over a computer network

A messaging system in which a core messaging infrastructure stores and manages messaging attributes, but applications external to the core infrastructure define and modify most attributes. Attribute types may be easily defined or modified, the manner in which attribute values are obtained may be easily defined or modified, and the entity types to which attributes are assigned may be easily defined or modified. The messaging system includes a plurality of messaging entities, such as messages, folders, and users, a plurality of attributes associated with the messaging entities, and a plurality of applications. Each application is operable to examine and modify at least some of the messaging entities and attributes. An application selection device is operable to examine at least some of the messaging entities and at least some of the attributes and to select an application to be invoked, from among the plurality of applications, based on values of the examined messaging entities and attributes. An application invocation device invokes the selected application. The applications may define and modify a type of an attribute and/or may define and modify an association of an attribute with a messaging entity.

Messaging system with application-defined states

A messaging system, and method of operation thereof, which supports combinations of directory and mailing list addressing mechanisms. Intended message recipients are specified as declarative addresses, which may include combinations of directory and mailing list information. The messaging system includes a messaging server and an address resolution module. The messaging server receives a message from a sender system and transmits the message to the recipient system. The address resolution module, which is coupled to the messaging server, receives a declarative address associated with the message, resolves the declarative address into at least one messaging address and transmits the at least one messaging address to the messaging server. In one embodiment, a database system may be coupled to the address resolution module to allow address resolution based on information stored in a database. The address resolution module generates a database query based on the declarative address and transmits the generated query to a database system. The database system receives a database query, retrieves at least one messaging address specified by the query and transmits the retrieved at least one messaging address to the address resolution module.

Declarative message addressing

A method for estimating string-occurrence probability in a database comprises receiving a first probability of occurrence for each maximal substring from a plurality of substrings, each maximal substring in the plurality of substrings belonging to the string; obtaining an overall probability of occurrence; receiving a probability of occurrence for a maximal overlap of each maximal substring in the plurality of maximal substrings; obtaining a normalization factor; and dividing the overall probability of occurrence by the normalization factor to obtain the estimate.

Method and apparatus for substring selectivity estimation

A method and apparatus provide for the automatic aggregation of network management information in spatial, temporal and functional forms. Management information relating to a network is automatically aggregated by computational means in the form of a attribute name-value pair which is stored in an Aggregation Managed Object (AMO). The aggregation of network management information in the form of an AMO supports the spatial, temporal and functional aggregations. The AMOs themselves are stored in a database of a special management agent, the Management Aggregation and Visualization Server (MAVS) which allows network managers to access and set network information to and from the different aggregation forms.

Automatic aggregation of network management information in spatial, temporal and functional forms

A method and apparatus is provided for asynchronous version advancement in a three version database. For a distributed database, read transactions are executed using a first version of a database. Update transactions are executed such that information is written into a second version of the database. The second version may include less than all of the information contained in the first version. A database version begins to be advanced at each node such that the information in the second version becomes available for read transactions. For an update transaction that starts on a node after the database version has been advanced, the update transaction is executed such that the update transaction writes information into a third version of the database. The advancement of the database version is completed such that the second version becomes the first version and the third version becomes the second version. For a centralized database, the protocol reduces of the number of versions from four to three.

Method and apparatus for asynchronous version advancement in a three version database

The present invention provides a centralized electronic mail apparatus and method in which a message is sent to each of a subscriber's electronic mail receiving devices. When a sending party wishes to send an electronic mail message to a receiving party, the sending party creates the electronic mail message along with any attachments using his/her user device and sends the electronic mail message to the centralized electronic mail apparatus. The centralized electronic mail apparatus receives the electronic mail message and retrieves profile information from a profile database corresponding to the receiving party. Based on the profile information, the centralized electronic mail device further determines the receiving party's electronic mail receiving devices to which the electronic mail message is to be sent. The centralized electronic mail apparatus further determines the portions of the electronic mail message that are to be sent to each of the electronic mail receiving devices. The centralized electronic mail apparatus then sends the portions of the electronic mail message to the electronic mail receiving devices and monitors them to determine if the receiving party has retrieved the electronic mail message from any of the electronic mail receiving devices. If the receiving party retrieves the electronic mail message from any of the electronic mail receiving devices, a delete command is sent to at least a portion of the other electronic mail receiving devices based on the profile information retrieved.

Method and apparatus for sending an electronic mail message to a receiving party

Method for reducing perceived delay between a time data is requested and a time data is available for display

Growing community of inventors

Berkeley Heights, NJ, United States of America

Hosagrahar Visvesvaraya Jagadish