US Patent 9471657 Range query capacity allocation

Distributed database management systems may perform range queries over the leading portion of a primary key. Non-random distribution of data may improve performance related to the processing of range queries, but may tend to cause workload to be concentrated on particular partitions. Groups of partitions may be expanded and collapsed based on detection of disproportionate workload. Disproportionate write workload may be distributed among a group of partitions that can subsequently be queried using a federated approach. Disproportionate read workload may be distributed among a group of read-only replicated partitions.