Patent ID: 9588985
Date: 2017-03-07
CPC Classifications: G06F

Claim:
1. A method performed in relation to a tree comprising a plurality of nodes defined according to a hierarchy specified by a corresponding node pointer at each node, wherein each node pointer of a node points to a lower node to define said hierarchy, said method being performed in a digital processing system, said method comprising: maintaining, for each node of said plurality of nodes, a corresponding pair of pointer fields and an index field, wherein each index field indicates one of said pair of pointer fields as the node pointer of the node; performing a change operation in a first execution entity, and a traversal operation in a second execution entity, wherein said first execution entity and said second execution entity are executed concurrently in said digital processing system, said change operation requiring modification of the node pointer of a first node and said traversal operation being designed to traverse a sequence of nodes including said first node of said tree, wherein said traversal operation comprises accessing each node in said sequence based on the specific one of said pair of pointer fields indicated by the corresponding index fields of the node, wherein said change operation is performed using the other one of said pair of pointer fields not indicated by said index field of said first node; and permitting non-blocking access of said first node to both of said first execution entity and said second execution entity, thereby enabling said change operation and said traversal operation to be performed concurrently.