Greedy Signature Processing with Arbitrary Location Distributions: A Divisible Load Framework

The optimal partition of a huge, linear (flat) file among processing nodes in a network to minimize the time to search for signatures of interest in the file is considered. First, an expression is developed for the expected time of finding the kth signature (including the last signature) of K signatures for a uniform distribution of signatures in the file. Secondly, for a single signature we propose processing data in the file in order from that with the most probability mass (i.e., data with the most a priori likelihood of containing the signature) to that with the least probability mass in a "greedy" manner to speed processing time. Applications of this work include radar, sensors, image processing, and search.