Efficient computations and network communications in a distributed computing environment

摘要

Exemplary embodiments relate to the problem of determining measurements in a distributed computing environment in which observations relating to the measurements are distributed amongst two or more nodes. Each node, which stores a number of node-specific observations, makes available its observation count and a number of observation sketches. The observations are merged into an array, and the sketches from each node are combined into overall summary sketches representing a summary of the observations across all the nodes. The summary sketches may then be used to approximate the measurement. The described techniques allow for the computation of arbitrary measurements (i.e., measurements that are not predetermined and for whose calculation the environment is not preconfigured) in a grid computing environment with a technical advantage of having very few rounds of data communication (e.g., two or less) required between the nodes in the computing grid.