SBIR Phase I: Scalable, Real-time Search Engine

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will investigate the feasibility to enable Web search engines software to scale to 10 million resources updated at a typical speed of 5 minutes with a typical response time of 3 seconds. The Phase I plan is to develop a software simulator using off-the-shelf hardware and infrastructure software, along with a new, innovative software algorithm to improve the search engine. The broader impacts of the innovation are in enabling a new class of Web applications for high-update resources such as real-time sensors and RFID. The innovation will increase the technological understanding in building scalable real-time Web applications. Commercial web search engines available today are designed for resources that are updated in weeks or months; they are not suitable for the next generation of Web applications that require higher updates. This innovation, if successful will allow a new class of real-time distributed Web services.