Path name resolution method providing fixed speed of file accessing in computer network

Patent 5437029 Issued on July 25, 1995. Estimated Expiration Date:

March 30, 2014. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.

Abstract Claims Description Full Text

Patent References

Distributed control of alias name usage in networks
Patent #: 4718005
Issued on: 01/05/1988
Inventor: Feigenbaum , et al.

Directory cache management in a distributed data processing system
Patent #: 5151989
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Inventor: Johnson, et al.

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Patent #: 5287537
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Patent #: 5357630
Issued on: 10/18/1994
Inventor: Oprescu, et al.

Apparatus and method for a federated naming system which can resolve a composite name composed of names from any number of disparate naming systems Patent #: 5377323
Issued on: 12/27/1994
Inventor: Vasudevan

Inventor

Sinha, Pradeep K.

Assignee

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Application

No. 220424 filed on 03/30/1994

US Classes:

707/200, FILE OR DATABASE MAINTENANCE709/245, COMPUTER-TO-COMPUTER DATA ADDRESSING711/200ADDRESS FORMATION

Examiners

Primary: Black, Thomas G.
Assistant: Lintz, Paul R.

Attorney, Agent or Firm

Lowe, Price, LeBlanc & Becker

Foreign Patent References

3103942 JP. 04/13/1991

International Classes

G06F 015/16
G06F 017/30

Foreign Application Priority Data

1993-03-31 JP

Abstract

A method of path name resolution is provided for use in a network of data processing systems, whereby each user of a system can specify that a particular file, located at some other system in the network, is to be accessed using a local search mode of path name resolution, providing high access performance with fixed access speed. Each of the directories of the path name of that file which are resident in other systems of the network are then replicated on disk at the user's system, each replicated directory including a counter which is initialized to 1. Each subsequent request by a user of that system for applying the local accessing mode to the same path name results in each of the counters being incremented by 1, while each request for returning the resolution mode to the conventional network-accessing mode of path name resolution results in each of the counters being decremented by 1, with a replicated directory being deleted when its counter value reaches zero.

Other References

Deitz et al., "CRegs: A New Kind of Memory For Referencing Arrays and Pointers", Proceedings. Supercomputing '88, Orlando, Fla., 14-18 Nov. 1988, pp. 360-367
Gopal et al., "Analysis of a Class of Distributed Directory Algorithms", IEEE INFOCOM '89. The Conference on Computer Communications. Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies, Ottawa, Canada, 23-27 Apr. 1989, pp. 293-30