Faster than optimal snapshots (for a while): Preliminary version

James Aspnes, Hagit Attiya, Keren Censor-Hillel, Faith Ellen

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

This paper presents a novel implementation of a snapshot object for n processes, with O(log 2blogn) step complexity for update operations and O(logb) step complexity for scan operations, where b is the number of updates. The algorithm uses only reads and writes. For polynomially many updates, this is an exponential improvement on previous snapshot algorithms, which have linear step complexity. It overcomes the existing Ω(n) lower bound on step complexity by having the step complexity depend on the number of updates. The key to this implementation is the construction of a new object consisting of a pair of max registers that supports a scan operation. Applications of this construction include an implementation of a limited-use generalized counter with polylogarithmic step complexity. This can be used, for example, to monitor the number of active processes, which is crucial to adaptive algorithms.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPODC'12 - Proceedings of the 2012 ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing
Pages375-383
Number of pages9
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012
Event2012 ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing, PODC'12 - Madeira, Portugal
Duration: 16 Jul 201218 Jul 2012

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing

Conference

Conference2012 ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing, PODC'12
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityMadeira
Period16/07/1218/07/12

Keywords

  • atomic snapshot
  • concurrent objects
  • generalized counters
  • restricted-use objects

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software
  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Computer Networks and Communications

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Faster than optimal snapshots (for a while): Preliminary version'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this