A Bloom filter is a method for reducing the space (memory) required for representing a set by allowing a small error probability. In this paper we consider a : a data structure that, given a stream of elements, supports membership queries of the set of the last @math elements (a sliding window), while allowing a small error probability. We formally define the data structure and its relevant parameters and analyze the time and memory requirements needed to achieve them. We give a low space construction that runs in O(1) time per update with high probability (that is, for all sequences with high probability all operations take constant time) and provide an almost matching lower bound on the space that shows that our construction has the best possible space consumption up to an additive lower order term.
In the dynamic case, Lovett and Porat @cite_15 proved that the entropy lower bound cannot be achieved for any constant error rate. They show a lower bound of @math where @math depends only on @math . Pagh, Segev and Wieder @cite_8 showed that if the size @math is not known in advance then at least @math bits of space must be used. The Sliding Bloom Filter is in particular also a Bloom Filter in a dynamic setting, thus the @cite_15 and @cite_8 bounds are applicable.
@cite_15 @cite_8
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An approximate membership data structure is a randomized data structure for representing a set which supports membership queries. It allows for a small false positive error rate but has no false negative errors. Such data structures were first introduced by Bloom in the 1970's, and have since had numerous applications, mainly in distributed systems, database systems, and networks. The algorithm of Bloom is quite effective: it can store a set @math of size @math by using only @math bits while having false positive error @math . This is within a constant factor of the entropy lower bound of @math for storing such sets. Closing this gap is an important open problem, as Bloom filters are widely used is situations were storage is at a premium. Bloom filters have another property: they are dynamic. That is, they support the iterative insertions of up to @math elements. In fact, if one removes this requirement, there exist static data structures which receive the entire set at once and can almost achieve the entropy lower bound, they require only @math bits. Our main result is a new lower bound for the memory requirements of any dynamic approximate membership data structure. We show that for any constant @math , any such data structure which achieves false positive error rate of @math must use at least @math memory bits, where @math depends only on @math . This shows that the entropy lower bound cannot be achieved by dynamic data structures for any constant error rate. In fact, our lower bound holds even in the setting where the insertion and query algorithms may use shared randomness, and where they are only required to perform well on average. The dynamic approximate membership problem asks to represent a set S of size n, whose elements are provided in an on-line fashion, supporting membership queries without false negatives and with a false positive rate at most epsilon. That is, the membership algorithm must be correct on each x in S, and may err with probability at most epsilon on each x not in S. We study a well-motivated, yet insufficiently explored, variant of this problem where the size n of the set is not known in advance. Existing optimal approximate membership data structures require that the size is known in advance, but in many practical scenarios this is not a realistic assumption. Moreover, even if the eventual size n of the set is known in advance, it is desirable to have the smallest possible space usage also when the current number of inserted elements is smaller than n. Our contribution consists of the following results: - We show a super-linear gap between the space complexity when the size is known in advance and the space complexity when the size is not known in advance. - We show that our space lower bound is tight, and can even be matched by a highly efficient data structure.