Balanced binary trees for ID management and load balance in distributed hash tables

We present a low-cost, decentralized algorithm for ID management in distributed hash tables (DHTs) managed by a dynamic set of hosts. Each host is assigned an ID in the unit interval [0, 1). At any time, the set of IDs splits the interval into disjoint partitions. Hosts do not possess global knowledge of other IDs in the system. The challenge then is to design an efficient decentralized algorithm that maintains roughly equi-sized partitions, in the face of arrivals, departures and changes in the average number of hosts. Our ID management algorithm is the first to enjoy all of the following properties: (a) both arrivals and departures of hosts are handled, (b) departure of a host causes at most one existing host to change its ID, (c) the ratio of the largest to the smallest partition is at most 4, with high probability, and (d) the expected cost per arrival/departure is Θ(R + log n) messages, where n denotes the current number of participants, and R denotes the cost of routing one me...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: PODC
• Authors: Gurmeet Singh Manku
• Keywords: Algorithm, Distributed And Parallel Computing, ID Management, ID Management Algorithm, PODC 2004