As per patent office journal dated 13/08/2021, patent number 374151 has been granted to TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET L M ERICSSON which is titled DATA DISTRIBUTION/RETRIEVAL USING MULTI DIMENSIONAL INDEX.
The primary independent claim of this patent states a method of data distribution in a distributed data storage system that stores a set of data items across physically distinct computers. Each physically distinct computer manages a subset of the data items by defining at least one metric space associated with the distributed data storage system and within the one metric space a number of hyper-spheres are defined wherein each of the defined hyper-spheres have a center and radius, data points representing corresponding data items, and an association with one or more of the physically distinct computers. Further, calculating a distance from a specified data point, corresponding to a specified data item to be stored in the distributed data storage system, to a center of each of the defined hyper-spheres and selecting at least one physically distinct computer for storage of the specified data item based on which of the hyper-sphere centers is closest to the specified data point wherein each data item includes one or more key fields, each key field represents a defining field of the data item within the set of data items; wherein every value of a key field is mapped to a real number and the set of real numbers to which the key fields of a data item are mapped comprises a data point in the metric space.
During the patent prosecution, the patent examiner objected to this patent under section 3(k) of the Indian Patents Act. The patent applicant responded to this objection by stating that if the present invention provides a technical solution to a technical problem and has a technical effect then the same cannot be considered to fall under the category of algorithm or computer program per se. In light of such observation, the technical problem solved by the present invention is formulated as how to allow exact queries/searches in a distributed data storage system that has a plurality of distinct computers. Therefore, the claims of the present invention do not fall within the scope of Section 3(k) of the Act.
This patent falls under the category of Computer Science. Overall, this patent covers a distributed data storage system that uses a data distribution and location algorithm based on distance functions and hyper-spheres in a multi-dimensional space. The distributed data storage system uses the algorithm to maintain, over time, a balanced distribution across a number of computers interconnected by a network of a varying set of data items. Each data item includes one or more key fields. The system also includes an efficient partial-match and exact-match search across a whole set of data items using as search criteria the values of any or all of the sought data item’s key fields.
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