Importance

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Abstract

A method of propagating data through a distributed information system is closed wherein in a computer implemented distributed information system, a method of maintaining referential integrity of a plurality of links and documents by propagating updates from a server to a plurality of servers, comprising the steps of; i) the server maintaining an ordered list of the plurality of servers in the distributed information system; ii) the server maintaining a link database containing the plurality of links for locating remote documents stored remotely which are referenced by documents stored locally at the server; iii) the server maintaining an update list including messages reflecting changes to local documents and links and remote documents and links; iv) selecting a priority value (p) with which to transmit the update list wherein the priority value is a real number greater than or equal to 1; v) on a predetermined clock cycle, the server transmitting the update list according to the priority value wherein, the server transmits the update list to a receiving server located adjacent to it on the ordered list, to an integer portion of p-1 other receiving servers selected at random from the ordered list and to another receiving server selected at random from the ordered list with a probability equal to a fractional portion of p; vi) the receiving servers updating their link databases and the locally stored documents with messages from the update list and appending the receiving servers respective lists of object data with the received list of object data; and vii) repeating steps v) through vii).

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First Claim