Using hint tables to locate resources in distributed systems

The authors address the problem of determining how system parameters affect the performance of the location operations when hint tables are used. To this end they approximate a distributed system incorporating hint tables in its location strategy with an analytic model. They identify a set of parameters affecting the cost of location operations and provide a criterion to help decide whether the use of hint tables should be incorporated in the design of a given system. They give a set of examples to illustrate the usage of the analytic results. These include location using: broadcast in a broadcast network; name servers in a broadcast network; broadcast is a packet switched network and name servers in a packet switched network.<>