August 1999
Intermediate to advanced
560 pages
18h 57m
English
Priority queues are used to prioritize data. A priority queue consists of elements organized so that the highest priority element can be ascertained efficiently. For example, consider maintaining usage statistics about a number of servers for which you are trying to do load balancing. As connection requests arrive, a priority queue can be used to determine which server is best able to accommodate the new request. In this scenario, the server with least usage is the one that gets the highest priority because it is the best one to service the request.