Systems Seminar: Scott Shenker, U.C. Berkeley

Distributed Hash Tables: Applications to distributed systems, sensornets, and Internet architecture

Abstract

The explosive growth but primitive design of early peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing systems led the research community to develop a more sophisticated technology called distributed hash tables (DHTs). Despite their origin, DHTs have had only a limited impact on P2P file sharing. Instead, DHTs have become a rather popular systems hammer in search of application nails. This talk will first briefly review the basics of DHTs and then discuss their use in distributed systems, sensornets, and Internet architecture.

Speaker Bio

Scott Shenker spent his academic youth studying theoretical physics but soon gave up chaos theory for computer science. Continuing to display a remarkably short attention span, his research over the years has wandered from computer performance modeling and computer networks to game theory and economics. Unable to hold a steady job, he currently splits his time between the U. C. Berkeley Computer Science Department and the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI).