The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 06, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 19, 1998
Kenneth J. DeLong, Hollis, NH (US);
Edward A. Heiner, Jr., Londonderry, NH (US);
3Com Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A distributed data structure providing an indication of the validity of a data value or values associated with a given key value. The data structure has at least one data entry associated with each of plural key entries. The validity indication enables asynchronous updates to key and data entries by preventing retrieval of invalid data values, while enabling a simultaneous search of the key entries for a particular key value. The validity indication also allows the data structure to be sparsely populated; it is possible to mark a key value as invalid such that binary searching of the data structure is unaffected and invalid data is not retrieved. Data structure throughput is enhanced as a result of minimized maintenance overhead.