More Analysis of Double Hashing for Balanced Allocations

With double hashing, for a key $x$, one generates two hash values $f(x)$ and $g(x)$, and then uses combinations $(f(x) +i g(x)) \bmod n$ for $i=0,1,2,...$ to generate multiple hash values in the range $[0,n-1]$ from the initial two. For balanced allocations, keys are hashed into a hash table where each bucket can hold multiple keys, and each key is placed in the least loaded of $d$ choices. It has been shown previously that asymptotically the performance of double hashing and fully random hashing is the same in the balanced allocation paradigm using fluid limit methods. Here we extend a coupling argument used by Lueker and Molodowitch to show that double hashing and ideal uniform hashing are asymptotically equivalent in the setting of open address hash tables to the balanced allocation setting, providing further insight into this phenomenon. We also discuss the potential for and bottlenecks limiting the use this approach for other multiple choice hashing schemes.Comment: 13 pages ; current draft ; will be submitted to conference shortl

Dense peelable random uniform hypergraphs

We describe a new family of k-uniform hypergraphs with independent random edges. The hypergraphs have a high probability of being peelable, i.e. to admit no sub-hypergraph of minimum degree 2, even when the edge density (number of edges over vertices) is close to 1. In our construction, the vertex set is partitioned into linearly arranged segments and each edge is incident to random vertices of k consecutive segments. Quite surprisingly, the linear geometry allows our graphs to be peeled "from the outside in". The density thresholds f_k for peelability of our hypergraphs (f_3 ~ 0.918, f_4 ~ 0.977, f_5 ~ 0.992, ...) are well beyond the corresponding thresholds (c_3 ~ 0.818, c_4 ~ 0.772, c_5 ~ 0.702, ...) of standard k-uniform random hypergraphs. To get a grip on f_k, we analyse an idealised peeling process on the random weak limit of our hypergraph family. The process can be described in terms of an operator on [0,1]^Z and f_k can be linked to thresholds relating to the operator. These thresholds are then tractable with numerical methods. Random hypergraphs underlie the construction of various data structures based on hashing, for instance invertible Bloom filters, perfect hash functions, retrieval data structures, error correcting codes and cuckoo hash tables, where inputs are mapped to edges using hash functions. Frequently, the data structures rely on peelability of the hypergraph or peelability allows for simple linear time algorithms. Memory efficiency is closely tied to edge density while worst and average case query times are tied to maximum and average edge size. To demonstrate the usefulness of our construction, we used our 3-uniform hypergraphs as a drop-in replacement for the standard 3-uniform hypergraphs in a retrieval data structure by Botelho et al. [Fabiano Cupertino Botelho et al., 2013]. This reduces memory usage from 1.23m bits to 1.12m bits (m being the input size) with almost no change in running time. Using k > 3 attains, at small sacrifices in running time, further improvements to memory usage

Random hypergraphs for hashing-based data structures

This thesis concerns dictionaries and related data structures that rely on providing several random possibilities for storing each key. Imagine information on a set S of m = |S| keys should be stored in n memory locations, indexed by [n] = {1,…,n}. Each object x [ELEMENT OF] S is assigned a small set e(x) [SUBSET OF OR EQUAL TO] [n] of locations by a random hash function, independent of other objects. Information on x must then be stored in the locations from e(x) only. It is possible that too many objects compete for the same locations, in particular if the load c = m/n is high. Successfully storing all information may then be impossible. For most distributions of e(x), however, success or failure can be predicted very reliably, since the success probability is close to 1 for loads c less than a certain load threshold c^* and close to 0 for loads greater than this load threshold. We mainly consider two types of data structures: • A cuckoo hash table is a dictionary data structure where each key x [ELEMENT OF] S is stored together with an associated value f(x) in one of the memory locations with an index from e(x). The distribution of e(x) is controlled by the hashing scheme. We analyse three known hashing schemes, and determine their exact load thresholds. The schemes are unaligned blocks, double hashing and a scheme for dynamically growing key sets. • A retrieval data structure also stores a value f(x) for each x [ELEMENT OF] S. This time, the values stored in the memory locations from e(x) must satisfy a linear equation that characterises the value f(x). The resulting data structure is extremely compact, but unusual. It cannot answer questions of the form “is y [ELEMENT OF] S?”. Given a key y it returns a value z. If y [ELEMENT OF] S, then z = f(y) is guaranteed, otherwise z may be an arbitrary value. We consider two new hashing schemes, where the elements of e(x) are contained in one or two contiguous blocks. This yields good access times on a word RAM and high cache efficiency. An important question is whether these types of data structures can be constructed in linear time. The success probability of a natural linear time greedy algorithm exhibits, once again, threshold behaviour with respect to the load c. We identify a hashing scheme that leads to a particularly high threshold value in this regard. In the mathematical model, the memory locations [n] correspond to vertices, and the sets e(x) for x [ELEMENT OF] S correspond to hyperedges. Three properties of the resulting hypergraphs turn out to be important: peelability, solvability and orientability. Therefore, large parts of this thesis examine how hyperedge distribution and load affects the probabilities with which these properties hold and derive corresponding thresholds. Translated back into the world of data structures, we achieve low access times, high memory efficiency and low construction times. We complement and support the theoretical results by experiments.Diese Arbeit behandelt Wörterbücher und verwandte Datenstrukturen, die darauf aufbauen, mehrere zufällige Möglichkeiten zur Speicherung jedes Schlüssels vorzusehen. Man stelle sich vor, Information über eine Menge S von m = |S| Schlüsseln soll in n Speicherplätzen abgelegt werden, die durch [n] = {1,…,n} indiziert sind. Jeder Schlüssel x [ELEMENT OF] S bekommt eine kleine Menge e(x) [SUBSET OF OR EQUAL TO] [n] von Speicherplätzen durch eine zufällige Hashfunktion unabhängig von anderen Schlüsseln zugewiesen. Die Information über x darf nun ausschließlich in den Plätzen aus e(x) untergebracht werden. Es kann hierbei passieren, dass zu viele Schlüssel um dieselben Speicherplätze konkurrieren, insbesondere bei hoher Auslastung c = m/n. Eine erfolgreiche Speicherung der Gesamtinformation ist dann eventuell unmöglich. Für die meisten Verteilungen von e(x) lässt sich Erfolg oder Misserfolg allerdings sehr zuverlässig vorhersagen, da für Auslastung c unterhalb eines gewissen Auslastungsschwellwertes c* die Erfolgswahrscheinlichkeit nahezu 1 ist und für c jenseits dieses Auslastungsschwellwertes nahezu 0 ist. Hauptsächlich werden wir zwei Arten von Datenstrukturen betrachten: • Eine Kuckucks-Hashtabelle ist eine Wörterbuchdatenstruktur, bei der jeder Schlüssel x [ELEMENT OF] S zusammen mit einem assoziierten Wert f(x) in einem der Speicherplätze mit Index aus e(x) gespeichert wird. Die Verteilung von e(x) wird hierbei vom Hashing-Schema festgelegt. Wir analysieren drei bekannte Hashing-Schemata und bestimmen erstmals deren exakte Auslastungsschwellwerte im obigen Sinne. Die Schemata sind unausgerichtete Blöcke, Doppel-Hashing sowie ein Schema für dynamisch wachsenden Schlüsselmengen. • Auch eine Retrieval-Datenstruktur speichert einen Wert f(x) für alle x [ELEMENT OF] S. Diesmal sollen die Werte in den Speicherplätzen aus e(x) eine lineare Gleichung erfüllen, die den Wert f(x) charakterisiert. Die entstehende Datenstruktur ist extrem platzsparend, aber ungewöhnlich: Sie ist ungeeignet um Fragen der Form „ist y [ELEMENT OF] S?“ zu beantworten. Bei Anfrage eines Schlüssels y wird ein Ergebnis z zurückgegeben. Falls y [ELEMENT OF] S ist, so ist z = f(y) garantiert, andernfalls darf z ein beliebiger Wert sein. Wir betrachten zwei neue Hashing-Schemata, bei denen die Elemente von e(x) in einem oder in zwei zusammenhängenden Blöcken liegen. So werden gute Zugriffszeiten auf Word-RAMs und eine hohe Cache-Effizienz erzielt. Eine wichtige Frage ist, ob Datenstrukturen obiger Art in Linearzeit konstruiert werden können. Die Erfolgswahrscheinlichkeit eines naheliegenden Greedy-Algorithmus weist abermals ein Schwellwertverhalten in Bezug auf die Auslastung c auf. Wir identifizieren ein Hashing-Schema, das diesbezüglich einen besonders hohen Schwellwert mit sich bringt. In der mathematischen Modellierung werden die Speicherpositionen [n] als Knoten und die Mengen e(x) für x [ELEMENT OF] S als Hyperkanten aufgefasst. Drei Eigenschaften der entstehenden Hypergraphen stellen sich dann als zentral heraus: Schälbarkeit, Lösbarkeit und Orientierbarkeit. Weite Teile dieser Arbeit beschäftigen sich daher mit den Wahrscheinlichkeiten für das Vorliegen dieser Eigenschaften abhängig von Hashing Schema und Auslastung, sowie mit entsprechenden Schwellwerten. Eine Rückübersetzung der Ergebnisse liefert dann Datenstrukturen mit geringen Anfragezeiten, hoher Speichereffizienz und geringen Konstruktionszeiten. Die theoretischen Überlegungen werden dabei durch experimentelle Ergebnisse ergänzt und gestützt

Balanced Allocations and Double Hashing

Double hashing has recently found more common usage in schemes that use multiple hash functions. In double hashing, for an item $x$, one generates two hash values $f(x)$ and $g(x)$, and then uses combinations $(f(x) +k g(x)) \bmod n$ for $k=0,1,2,...$ to generate multiple hash values from the initial two. We first perform an empirical study showing that, surprisingly, the performance difference between double hashing and fully random hashing appears negligible in the standard balanced allocation paradigm, where each item is placed in the least loaded of $d$ choices, as well as several related variants. We then provide theoretical results that explain the behavior of double hashing in this context.Comment: Further updated, small improvements/typos fixe

Linear Programming Relaxations for Goldreich's Generators over Non-Binary Alphabets

Goldreich suggested candidates of one-way functions and pseudorandom generators included in $\mathsf{NC}^0$. It is known that randomly generated Goldreich's generator using $(r-1)$-wise independent predicates with $n$ input variables and $m=C n^{r/2}$ output variables is not pseudorandom generator with high probability for sufficiently large constant $C$. Most of the previous works assume that the alphabet is binary and use techniques available only for the binary alphabet. In this paper, we deal with non-binary generalization of Goldreich's generator and derives the tight threshold for linear programming relaxation attack using local marginal polytope for randomly generated Goldreich's generators. We assume that $u(n)\in \omega(1)\cap o(n)$ input variables are known. In that case, we show that when $r\ge 3$, there is an exact threshold $\mu_\mathrm{c}(k,r):=\binom{k}{r}^{-1}\frac{(r-2)^{r-2}}{r(r-1)^{r-1}}$ such that for $m=\mu\frac{n^{r-1}}{u(n)^{r-2}}$, the LP relaxation can determine linearly many input variables of Goldreich's generator if $\mu>\mu_\mathrm{c}(k,r)$, and that the LP relaxation cannot determine $\frac1{r-2} u(n)$ input variables of Goldreich's generator if $\mu<\mu_\mathrm{c}(k,r)$. This paper uses characterization of LP solutions by combinatorial structures called stopping sets on a bipartite graph, which is related to a simple algorithm called peeling algorithm.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur

Load thresholds for cuckoo hashing with double hashing

In k-ary cuckoo hashing, each of cn objects is associated with k random buckets in a hash table of size n. An l-orientation is an assignment of objects to associated buckets such that each bucket receives at most l objects. Several works have determined load thresholds c^* = c^*(k,l) for k-ary cuckoo hashing; that is, for c c^* no l-orientation exists with high probability. A natural variant of k-ary cuckoo hashing utilizes double hashing, where, when the buckets are numbered 0,1,...,n-1, the k choices of random buckets form an arithmetic progression modulo n. Double hashing simplifies implementation and requires less randomness, and it has been shown that double hashing has the same behavior as fully random hashing in several other data structures that similarly use multiple hashes for each object. Interestingly, previous work has come close to but has not fully shown that the load threshold for k-ary cuckoo hashing is the same when using double hashing as when using fully random hashing. Specifically, previous work has shown that the thresholds for both settings coincide, except that for double hashing it was possible that o(n) objects would have been left unplaced. Here we close this open question by showing the thresholds are indeed the same, by providing a combinatorial argument that reconciles this stubborn difference

Simple Set Sketching

Imagine handling collisions in a hash table by storing, in each cell, the bit-wise exclusive-or of the set of keys hashing there. This appears to be a terrible idea: For $\alpha n$ keys and $n$ buckets, where $\alpha$ is constant, we expect that a constant fraction of the keys will be unrecoverable due to collisions. We show that if this collision resolution strategy is repeated three times independently the situation reverses: If $\alpha$ is below a threshold of $\approx 0.81$ then we can recover the set of all inserted keys in linear time with high probability. Even though the description of our data structure is simple, its analysis is nontrivial. Our approach can be seen as a variant of the Invertible Bloom Filter (IBF) of Eppstein and Goodrich. While IBFs involve an explicit checksum per bucket to decide whether the bucket stores a single key, we exploit the idea of quotienting, namely that some bits of the key are implicit in the location where it is stored. We let those serve as an implicit checksum. These bits are not quite enough to ensure that no errors occur and the main technical challenge is to show that decoding can recover from these errors.Comment: To be published at SIAM Symposium on Simplicity in Algorithms (SOSA23

A Novel Approach to Finding Near-Cliques: The Triangle-Densest Subgraph Problem

Many graph mining applications rely on detecting subgraphs which are near-cliques. There exists a dichotomy between the results in the existing work related to this problem: on the one hand the densest subgraph problem (DSP) which maximizes the average degree over all subgraphs is solvable in polynomial time but for many networks fails to find subgraphs which are near-cliques. On the other hand, formulations that are geared towards finding near-cliques are NP-hard and frequently inapproximable due to connections with the Maximum Clique problem. In this work, we propose a formulation which combines the best of both worlds: it is solvable in polynomial time and finds near-cliques when the DSP fails. Surprisingly, our formulation is a simple variation of the DSP. Specifically, we define the triangle densest subgraph problem (TDSP): given $G(V,E)$, find a subset of vertices $S^*$ such that $\tau(S^*)=\max_{S \subseteq V} \frac{t(S)}{|S|}$, where $t(S)$ is the number of triangles induced by the set $S$. We provide various exact and approximation algorithms which the solve the TDSP efficiently. Furthermore, we show how our algorithms adapt to the more general problem of maximizing the $k$-clique average density. Finally, we provide empirical evidence that the TDSP should be used whenever the output of the DSP fails to output a near-clique.Comment: 42 page