On the use of hash tables in real-time applications

Software applications use hash tables for many different purposes. Hash tables have an excellent average-case behavior but, in the worst-case, it degrades to something like a chained list. Because of that, the use of hash tables in real-time systems is not usual, since those systems may be required to guarantee deadlines. This paper discusses the use of hash table in real-time systems, considering that when the probability of an undesirable behavior is low enough, it can be ignored. It also compares approaches simple and 2-choice for the table design.