Russian MeraLabs Patented New Storage Technology

Based in Russia, MeraLabs LLC researchers have developed and patented a technology that allows creation of infinitely expanding repositories of electronic documents.

According to Dmitry Ponomarev, General Director of MeraLabs and President of MERA, the newly developed technology constitutes a radical departure from the well-known principles of building relational databases and object-centric models: "We suggest an entirely new architecture for distributed systems designed for retention and efficient search for digital documents stored as XML files. We call this breakthrough technology ‘Mera rEvolutionary Repository Architecture’ or ‘MERA’. The technology involves keeping documents on many TCP/IP-connected computers the population of which may grow infinitely, without any detrimental effect on the speed and effectiveness of data search that allows a variety of search criteria: key words, location IDs, object name, fuzzy requests and so on."

"The mathematical object, metrized graph with properties of the ‘small world’ , that we inquired into, forms the basis of the architecture", says professor Krylov, Research Supervisor and Technical Director for MeraLabs, an affiliate of the Mera group of companies. Such approach allowed us to do away with centralized indexing and use a distributed system of cross-links for all documents stored in the repository. Adding a document to the repository means just tying it to the set of links pointing to documents already in the repository, following a special algorithm. By these means every document in the repository gets its own list of links. When a search query arrives with certain search parameters an XML document with a similar intrinsic structure called ‘search mask’ is generated. This search mask is added to the repository in the same way as all other documents; and a search of XML documents matching most closely the mask starts.

MeraLabs researchers believe that the suggested database architecture will provide a solution to the problem of building and maintaining huge and dynamic databases intended for keeping descriptions of various real world objects. By way of example, the suggested architecture allows the implementation and open-ended expansion of any real estate, merchandise and equipment inventories.

"We possess a technology for information systems capable of storage, prompt update and quick retrieval of data about all things – motor vehicles, weapons of war, customs and excise duty products etc. Such systems are easily connectable to RFID readers and could materially alleviate damage from mishandling, trafficking and abuse of products commonly subject to strict scrutiny and control by governmental agencies",  says Dmitry Ponomarev, "the suggested architecture allows the creation of variegated registries. Product life-cycle systems, multimedia content libraries, DNS registrars are just a few potential users of our technology".

About MeraLabs
MeraLabs is an incubator for high-tech venture projects. The innovation projects that MeraLabs nurtures are currently at development phases varying from seed to early-stage and address data search and storage, networking and telecommunications technologies. MeraLabs is an affiliate of the MERA group of companies, which specialize in rendering software design, development, testing and sustaining services as well as in the development of technology-intensive networking and telecommunications applications.