HyperDex: a distributed, searchable key-value store

Distributed key-value stores are now a standard component of high-performance web services and cloud computing applications. While key-value stores offer significant performance and scalability advantages compared to traditional databases, they achieve these properties through a restricted API that limits object retrieval—an object can only be retrieved by the (primary and only) key under which it was inserted. This paper presents HyperDex, a novel distributed key-value store that provides a unique search primitive that enables queries on secondary attributes. The key insight behind HyperDex is the concept of hyperspace hashing in which objects with multiple attributes are mapped into a multidimensional hyperspace. This mapping leads to efficient implementations not only for retrieval by primary key, but also for partially-specified secondary attribute searches and range queries. A novel chaining protocol enables the system to achieve strong consistency, maintain availability and...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2012
• Where: SIGCOMM
• Authors: Robert Escriva, Bernard Wong, Emin Gün Sirer
• Keywords: Communications, Operating Systems Organization, Range Queries, SIGCOMM 2012, Traditional Databases