Patent ID: 6411957
Filing Date: 2002-06-25
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of organizing within a tree structure a plurality of nodes representing physical entities, the tree structure defining a number of node locations, each node location being reached via a predetermined path from a root node of the tree structure, the method comprising the steps of:(i) associating first and second keys with each node to be included in the tree structure, the value of at least the first key being unique for each node; (ii) arranging the nodes within the tree structure by sorting the nodes with respect to both the first key and the second key, the sorting with respect to the first key being such that each node may be positioned within the tree structure at any node location along the path from the root node to the node location specified by the first key; whereby a search can be performed for a node within the tree structure based on specified criteria for both the first and second keys.