Patent ID: 8370454

Claim:
A method for retrieving an electronic document in a computer network, comprising: determining a document identifier for the electronic document to be retrieved, wherein said electronic document has k=N replicas stored throughout the computer network, wherein N is a maximum number of replicas; wherein replicas are stored in ascending order of replica numbers at addresses predefined by a function which provides, for each replica number per electronic document, an address associated to a location entity where the replica can be found or can be stored; identifying the location entities where the replica for the electronic document might be stored by using a hash function that employs the replica number and the document identifier as input, wherein said hash function must be the hash function that was used to store the replicas of said electronic document; and performing iteratively (i=i+1) for each for each identified location entity until the replica is located: addressing a document related request to location entity (i), wherein location entity (i) has a set of replica numbers associated with it; receiving a positive response, indicating that the replica was located at location entity (i) for a particular replica number; and when receiving a negative response, indicating that there is no replica stored at location entity (i) for the particular replica number: setting the particular replica number associated with location entity (i) as an upper limit for a new set of replica numbers associated with a next location entity (location entity (i+1)) to be addressed with the document related request, wherein the new set of replica numbers represent lower replica numbers than the particular replica number that returned the negative response.