m-LIGHT: Indexing Multi-Dimensional Data over DHTs

In this paper, we study the problem of indexing multidimensional data in the P2P networks based on distributed hash tables (DHTs). We identify several design issues and propose a novel over-DHT indexing scheme called m- LIGHT. To preserve data locality, m-LIGHT employs a clever naming mechanism that gracefully maps the index tree into the underlying DHT so that it achieves efficient index maintenance and query processing. Moreover, m- LIGHT leverages a new data-aware index splitting strategy to achieve optimal load balance among peer nodes. We conduct an extensive performance evaluation for m-LIGHT. Compared to the state-of-the-art indexing schemes, m- LIGHT substantially saves the index maintenance overhead, achieves a more balanced load distribution, and improves the range query performance in both bandwidth consumption and response latency.