Distributed hash tables (DHTs) are decentralized distributed systems that provide a lookup service like a hash table using a key-value pair mapping. The responsibility for maintaining this mapping is distributed among nodes such that changes to the set of participants causes minimal disruption. Nodes are organized in an overlay network and assigned identifiers using consistent hashing. Lookup works by routing between nodes with identifiers that are numerically closest to the target key. Churn, the continuous arrival and departure of nodes, weakens DHT correctness and performance if neighbors become unavailable, forcing suboptimal routing and increasing failures. Techniques like periodic neighbor recovery and intelligent timeout calculation can help DHTs handle churn better.