Hierarchical Tree Address Map for Memory Efficient Lookup
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Solution Overview
Problem
As storage systems grow in size, managing and searching address maps becomes a bottleneck due to significant processing resources and memory requirements, necessitating an improved lookup system for enhanced performance.
Innovation Solution
A hierarchical tree-based address map structure with multiple levels, utilizing a tree-within-a-tree architecture and arrays for efficient node management, reduces memory footprint and improves search performance by using array indexes instead of memory addresses for pointers, allowing for efficient additions and balancing searchability with memory efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If traditional address map tables are used to map virtual addresses to physical addresses, then address mapping functionality is provided, but processing resources and memory requirements become prohibitive as address spaces grow
Solution Approach 1:
The address map is divided into multiple levels (e.g., L0, L1, L2) where each level contains a subset of the address space. This segmentation reduces the number of entries that must be searched at any given time, thereby reducing memory footprint while maintaining lookup capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a flat, single-level address map to a multi-level hierarchical structure. This dimensional change allows the system to organize address entries across multiple levels, reducing the search space at each level and improving both memory efficiency and lookup performance.
2Adaptability or versatility
If address map tables are enlarged to accommodate growing address spaces, then more addresses can be mapped, but search time and processing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the address map into multiple levels, the system can accommodate large address spaces without increasing search time proportionally. Each level handles a portion of the address space, so the effective search depth remains manageable even as total capacity grows.
Solution Approach 2:
The multi-level address map structure embeds smaller address maps within larger ones, creating a nested hierarchy. This allows the system to scale address space capacity by adding levels or expanding existing levels without requiring linear increases in search time across the entire address space.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for mapping a first address space to a second address space is provided. In some embodiments, the method includes creating a first array of lookup entries and one or more second arrays of metadata entries for maintaining an ordering among the lookup entries using a tree structure. Each of the metadata entries includes one or more data index values identifying a corresponding one of the lookup entries by its position in the first array and one or more metadata index values identifying a corresponding one of the metadata entries by its position in one of the one or more second arrays. The method further includes receiving a request including a lookup value, traversing the tree structure to locate a lookup entry corresponding to the lookup value, and when the lookup value is located among the lookup entries, using the located lookup entry to process the request.