System and method of accelerating response time to inquiries regarding inventory information in a network
US8856117B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 17, 2005 |
| Grant date | Oct 7, 2014 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 12, 2028 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06Q10/087
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and system for distributing access to inventory items available at vendor locations includes user stations transmitting user inquiries on a communications network. Network-connected location servers access a set of inventory availability information associated with inventory items available at their respective location, for example, tables at a restaurant. The host server receives user inquiries regarding availability of items associated with at least some of the location servers and queries a cache server that locally stores a binary subset of the information from the location servers to determine if the requested item is available without having to separately query the database at each location. Particularly, a web server receives and stores information regarding only whether a requested item is available or not available from a particular location rather than how many items are available at the location. A user, therefore, can access availability of inventory items with less communications traffic.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.