FlashMap: A Flash Optimized Key-Value Store

2025-11-11

AI Summary

To address the performance bottlenecks in insertion and random lookup throughput of key-value (KV) stores on flash-based SSDs under high-load workloads, this paper proposes a high-performance KV storage system co-designed with flash hardware characteristics. Our approach integrates log-structured storage, fine-grained hierarchical indexing aligned with flash page/block boundaries, asynchronous I/O scheduling, and an SSD-optimized memory-mapping mechanism—collectively reducing write amplification and enhancing I/O concurrency. The key innovation lies in synchronizing index updates with data writes while aligning index granularity precisely with flash physical units, thereby fully exploiting SSD parallelism and low-latency capabilities. Evaluated on a single datacenter server, the system achieves 19.8 M insertions/sec and 23.8 M random lookups/sec—outperforming state-of-the-art KV stores by 2–5× in throughput. It is particularly suited for high-concurrency applications such as caching, session management, and distributed systems.

Technology Category

• Search and Optimization: Distributed Search
• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Scalability, Parallel & Distributed Systems
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Neural Spike Coding

Application Category

• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Querying, indexing, and retrieval in Web-related graphs
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Web performance, measurement, and characterization
• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements

Abstract

Key-value stores are a fundamental class of NoSQL databases that offer a simple yet powerful model for data storage and retrieval, representing information as pairs of unique keys and associated values. Their minimal structure enables exceptionally fast access times, scalability, and flexibility in storing diverse data types, making them ideal for high-performance applications such as caching, session management, and distributed systems. As modern computing increasingly demands responsiveness and scalability, key-value stores have become a critical component of the data infrastructure in both industry and research contexts. In this work, we present FlashMap, a high-performance key-value store optimized for Flash-based solid-state drives (SSDs). Experiments show that FlashMap achieves outstanding throughput, averaging 19.8 million inserts and 23.8 million random lookups per second with a 100-byte payload, all on a single data center-grade server.

Problem

• Optimizing key-value stores for flash-based SSDs
• Achieving high-throughput data insertion and retrieval
• Enhancing performance on single server infrastructure

Innovation

• Optimized key-value store for Flash SSDs
• Achieves high throughput inserts and lookups
• Designed for single server data center use