Patent ID: 7586853

Claim:
Apparatus for use in retrieving information relating to a node in a network, wherein the network includes a plurality of nodes and communications links therebetween, the apparatus comprising: receiving means arranged to receive, on behalf of a node, a request in respect of information relating to a target node including a request for a network address of the target node, the request including an identifier indicative of location of the target node in a virtual space, wherein the location is independent of physical location and network address; sending means arranged to send, on behalf of said node, a request in respect of said target node, onward to another node; storage arranged to store data in respect of a plurality of nodes, the data including, for each such node, an identifier indicative of location of the node and a network address corresponding thereto in said virtual space, wherein the location is independent of physical location and network address; evaluating means arranged to evaluate distance between the locations of two nodes in said virtual space; the apparatus being arranged, upon receipt of such a request, to translate the target node's ID into coordinates in virtual space and to evaluate the distance between the locations of each of a plurality of evaluated nodes and the target location, at least one of said plurality of evaluated nodes being the receiving node, and to identify which of the plurality of evaluated nodes are closer to the target node than the receiving, node is to the target node in said virtual space, and wherein the sending means sends the request to one of the identified nodes.