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:
Sep. 08, 2009
Filed:
Oct. 11, 2002
Erwin R. Bonsma, Ipswich, GB;
Cefn R. Hoile, Ipswich, GB;
Erwin R. Bonsma, Ipswich, GB;
Cefn R. Hoile, Ipswich, GB;
British Telecommunications plc, London, GB;
Abstract
In a communications network environment, nodes, such as personal computers, are assigned co-ordinates in a co-ordinate space which is independent of network address and physical location. Each node maintains links to a limited set of other nodes by storing the network addresses for those selected nodes. Each stored network address represents a link in co-ordinate space. It becomes possible for any node to obtain the network address for a target node by initiating a query message to a node for which it has the network address, which query message is propagated through the network between nodes which have the network address for a next node across co-ordinate space. When a receiving node finds it is the target node, or is as close in co-ordinate space as it is possible to forward the query message, it returns its own network address to the initiating node. This technique can also be used to retrieve information other than network addresses—such as objects.