Patent ID: 7592935

Claim:
An information retrieval architecture for performing a multi-dimensional search for a lookup value associated with a set of input values, the set of input values organized into one or more fields, the information retrieval architecture comprising: a plurality of classification modules, each classification module storing the lookup values, each lookup value being associated with a set of input values; and a preprocessing module which receives a set of input values and selectively limits search of the plurality of classification modules to a subset of the classification modules, the preprocessing module further comprising one or more lookup structures associating input values with a data representation identifying which of the plurality of classification modules to search to retrieve the lookup value associated with the set of input values, the lookup structure further comprising a hashing module that receives the input value and generates a plurality of hashed values from the input value, a first table storing a plurality of encoded values, each hashed value generated from the input value corresponding to a location in the table of an encoded value, and a second table storing a plurality of data representations, where the first table is constructed so that the encoded values, obtained from the hashed values generated from an input value, encode an output value such that the output value cannot be recovered from any single encoded value and such that the output value selects a data representation in the second table, the data representation identifying which of the plurality of classification modules to search to retrieve the lookup value.