Chord project
Overview
Computing
Computing is usually defined as the activity of using and improving computer hardware and software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology...
, Chord is a protocol and algorithm for a peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
distributed hash table
Distributed hash table
A distributed hash table is a class of a decentralized distributed system that provides a lookup service similar to a hash table; pairs are stored in a DHT, and any participating node can efficiently retrieve the value associated with a given key...
. A distributed hash table stores key-value pairs
Associative array
In computer science, an associative array is an abstract data type composed of a collection of pairs, such that each possible key appears at most once in the collection....
by assigning keys to different computers (known as "nodes"); a node will store the values for all the keys for which it is responsible. Chord specifies how keys are assigned to nodes, and how a node can discover the value for a given key by first locating the node responsible for that key.
Chord is one of the four original distributed hash table
Distributed hash table
A distributed hash table is a class of a decentralized distributed system that provides a lookup service similar to a hash table; pairs are stored in a DHT, and any participating node can efficiently retrieve the value associated with a given key...
protocols, along with CAN
Content addressable network
The Content Addressable Network is a distributed, decentralized P2P infrastructure that provides hash table functionality on an Internet-like scale...
, Tapestry
Tapestry (DHT)
Tapestry is a distributed hash table which provides a decentralized object location, routing, and multicasting infrastructure for distributed applications...
, and Pastry
Pastry (DHT)
Pastry is an overlay and routing network for the implementation of a distributed hash table similar to Chord. The key-value pairs are stored in a redundant peer-to-peer network of connected Internet hosts. The protocol is bootstrapped by supplying it with the IP address of a peer already in the...
.
