Space-optimal heavy hitters with strong error bounds

The problem of finding heavy hitters and approximating the frequencies of items is at the heart of many problems in data stream analysis. It has been observed that several proposed solutions to this problem can outperform their worst-case guarantees on real data. This leads to the question of whether some stronger bounds can be guaranteed. We answer this in the positive by showing that a class of "counter-based algorithms" (including the popular and very space-efficient FREQUENT and SPACESAVING algorithms) provide much stronger approximation guarantees than previously known. Specifically, we show that errors in the approximation of individual elements do not depend on the frequencies of the most frequent elements, but only on the frequency of the remaining "tail." This shows that counter-based methods are the most spaceefficient (in fact, space-optimal) algorithms having this strong error bound. This tail guarantee allows these algorithms to solve the "sparse ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: PODS
• Authors: Radu Berinde, Graham Cormode, Piotr Indyk, Martin J. Strauss
• Keywords: Database, PODS 2009, Strong Error Bound, Stronger Approximation Guarantees, Tail Guarantees