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Document number: N3706

Date: 2013-09-01

C++ Distributed Counters

by Lawrence Crowl

Excerpt:

We propose a set of coordinated counter types that collectively provide for distributed counting. The essential component of the design is a trade-off between the cost of incrementing the counter, the cost of loading (reading) the counter value, and the "lag" between an increment and its appearance in a "read" value. That is, the read of a counter value may not reflect the most recent increments. However, no count will be lost.

These counters are parameterized by the base integer type that maintains the count. Avoid situations that overflow the integer, as that may have undefined behavior. This constraint implies that counters must be sized to their use. (For dynamic mitigation, see the exchange operation below.)