US 6,473,781 B1Granted

Communication system and method

AssigneeTelefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ)

InventorsRoger Skagerwall, Kaj Nygren

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Abstract

Communication system and method for linking each of a plurality of tagged object to information services stored on a network. The system reads an object tag of one of the objects and retrieves information about the object stored on storage located at arbitrary places. To facilitate the retrieval of information, a directory is provided storing object data associating each of the objects with information services. In order to be able to handle a virtually arbitrary number of objects and information services, the directory includes a plurality of directory servers, each storing part of data base of the object data. The object data is distributed according to a defined scheme onto the plurality of directory servers in order to be able to identify the directory server storing object data associated with a particular read object tag.

Claims29

Dependent claims

A system for connecting objects with information related to the objects, comprising:

a plurality of objects (D) each identified by an object tag (T);
a plurality of application servers each having an address (IS;
IS1-ISp) and each including memory means for storing a plurality of application data packets, each related to one of the objects and identified by an application identifier (AI1-AIm);
reading means (R) for reading one of the plurality of object tags (T);
a system kernel (K), including:
a plurality of directory servers (DS;
DS1-DSn) each having an address and comprising memory means (TM;
AM);
memory means for storing a list of the addresses of all available directory servers in a hashtable (H);
search means (SM) for assigning the object tags to the directory servers (DS;
DS1-DSn) based on a hashfunction and the hashtable (H), wherein the assignment of an object tag depends on the number of available directory servers, and the directory servers store object data associated with the assigned object tags in a distributed data base, the object data associating each of said objects with at least one of said application data packets;
means for receiving the read object tag (T) from the reading means (R);
means (DS;
DS1-DSn;
AS;
AS1-ASr) for identifying the directory server (DS;
DS1-DSn) assigned to the read object tag based on the hashtable and on the hashfunction, and retrieving the object data corresponding to the object tag;
and
means for retrieving at least one of the application data packets based on the object data or transmitting at least part of the object data to a receiving unit (M, DPU).

16 more elements

Method of connecting objects with information related to the objects, comprising:

marking each of a plurality of objects with an object tag;
storing a plurality of application data packets, each identified by an application identifier, in memory means of a plurality of application servers, each identified by an application server address;
storing a list of addresses of all available directory servers in a hashtable;
assigning the object tags (T;
T1-Tw) to the directory servers (DS;
DS1-DSn) using a hashfunction and the hashtable (H), wherein the assignment of an object tag depends on the number of available directory servers,
storing in the directory servers (DS;
DS1-DSn) object data corresponding to the mapped object tags in a distributed data base, the object data associating the plurality of objects with the plurality of objects application data packets;
reading one of the object tags using a reading means (R) and transmitting the read object tag to an access server (AS;
AS1-ASr);
determining the directory server (DS;
DS1-DSn) storing object data corresponding to the object tag based on the hashtable and the hashfunction;
obtaining the address of at least one of the application servers storing at least one of the application data packets associated with the object based on the object data;
and
retrieving the at least one of the application data packets using the address or transmitting data corresponding to the address to a mobile telephone (M) and/or a data processing unit (DPU).

12 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.