Patent ID: 6980985

Claim:
A method of searching a query through distributed directory servers organized as a forest having a plurality of entries, each entry represented by a unique identified, comprising the steps of: generating a topology cache of the distributed directory servers the topology describing the forest-structured, distributed topology of the directory servers; storing the generated topology cache at each server; forming, at the client, a distributed query evaluation plan P for a given query Q, based on the topology cache T sent to the client, where P=Q S1 @S 1 ∪ . . . ∪Q Sk @Sk, where S 1 . . . , Sk are defined as relevant directory servers for query Q extracted from the topology cache T, and Q S1 is the particular query for user with server S 1 ; and upon receiving, at one server, a request from a directory client associated with that server, sending a copy of the topology cache to the client to determine the identity of each directory server capable of returning answers to the query.