Patent ID: 7603377

Claim:
A record table of a plurality of record tables that store, in a relational database, relationships between database records associated with a plurality of hierarchical groups specifying “contains” relationships across groups comprising at least node, shelf, card, and port levels, each record table comprising: a group from the plurality of hierarchical groups of said database records, the group being associated with said node, shelf, card, and port levels of a containment hierarchy, each database record including: a data portion that stores information regarding a corresponding entity associated with said node, shelf, card, and port levels of the containment hierarchy; and a record key that uniquely identifies the database record within the entire relational database, the record key being an integer having a specified bit length and having a format specifying a plurality of record key regions, each record key region having a specified number of bits and being associated with said node, shelf, card, and port levels of the containment hierarchy associated with a group in a “contained within” relationship with the database record, the record key value stored in each record key region indexing a specific database record in the record table corresponding to said node, shelf, card, and port levels of the containment hierarchy.