Trit-Trie: A Balanced Ternary Prefix Tree Data Structure for O(k) Associative Lookup

Overview

A prefix tree (trie) data structure designed for balanced ternary keys. Each node has exactly three children corresponding to the three trit states (-1, 0, +1). Provides O(k) time complexity for insert, lookup, and delete operations, where k is the key length in trits.

Filed as a continuation of P8 (earmarked in P8 Claim 9), the trit-trie is used as the directory structure in TritFS. Beyond filesystem directories, the data structure is applicable to ternary symbol tables in compilers, routing tables for ternary-addressed network stacks, and any associative lookup over trit-encoded keys.

Key Claims

The patent protects the following algorithmic innovations:

• A prefix tree data structure with 3-way branching per node on trit states (-1, 0, +1)
• O(k) time complexity for insert, lookup, and delete operations on trit-encoded keys
• Application as a directory index structure in a balanced ternary filesystem
• A ternary key encoding scheme enabling efficient prefix matching
• Continuation claim from P8 Claim 9 for trit-trie directory lookup

Layer in the Stack

Algorithms & Data Structures. This is the topmost patent in the THATTE stack. It defines a fundamental data structure for balanced ternary computing that is used by TritFS (P8) for directory lookups and is applicable across the entire ternary software ecosystem.

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