Abstract
We give an alternate implementation of the fractional cascading data-structure of Chazelle and Guibas to do iterative search for a key in multiple ordered lists. The construction of our data-structure uses randomization and simplifies the algorithm of Chazelle and Guibas vastly making it practical to implement. Although our bounds are asymptotically similar to the earlier ones, there are improvements in the constant factors. Our analysis is novel and captures some of the inherent difficulties associated with the fractional casading data structure. In particular, we use tools from branching process theory and derive some useful asymptotic bounds. The probability of deviation from the expected performance bounds decreases rapidly with number of keys.
Part of this research was done when the author was a post-doctoral Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ during the year 1990–1991
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References
B. Chazelle and L. Guibas, “Fractional Cascading: I. A Data Structuring Technique,” Algorithmica, Vol. 1, 1986, pages 133–162.
B. Chazelle and L. Guibas, “Fractional Cascading: II. Applications,” Algorithmica, Vol. 1, 1986, pages 163–191.
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W. Pugh, “Skip Lists: A Probabilistic Alternative to Balanced Trees,” Communications of the ACM, Volume 33 Number 6, June 1990, pp. 668–676.
S. Sen, “Some observations on skip lists,” Information Processing Letters, 1991.
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© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Sen, S. (1992). Fractional cascading simplified. In: Nurmi, O., Ukkonen, E. (eds) Algorithm Theory — SWAT '92. SWAT 1992. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 621. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-55706-7_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-55706-7_18
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