Consistent hashing
Consistent hashing is a technique that’s used in distributed systems to efficiently distribute data across multiple nodes while minimizing the need for data reorganization or rebalancing when nodes are added or removed from the system. It provides a scalable and fault-tolerant approach to handling data distribution.
In traditional hashing techniques, such as modulo hashing, the number of nodes or buckets where data can be stored is fixed. When nodes are added or removed, the hash function that’s used to map data keys to nodes changes, requiring a significant amount of data to be remapped and redistributed across the nodes. This process can be time-consuming, resource-intensive, and disruptive to the system’s availability.
The key problem that consistent hashing addresses is the scalability and fault tolerance of distributed systems. It aims to minimize the impact of adding or removing nodes from the system by ensuring that only a fraction...