Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to techniques that improve performance of streaming systems. Accordingly we disclose efficient techniques for dynamic topology re-optimization, through the use of a feedback-driven control loop that substantially solve a number of these performance-impacting problems affecting such streaming systems. More particularly, we disclose a novel technique for network-aware tuple routing using consistent hashing that improves stream flow throughput in the presence of large, run-time overhead. We also disclose methods for dynamic optimization of overlay topologies for group communication operations. To enable fast topology re-optimization with least system disruption, we present a lightweight, fault-tolerant protocol. All of the disclosed techniques were implemented in a real system and comprehensively validated on three real applications. We have demonstrated significant improvement in performance (20% to 200%), while overcoming various compute and network bottlenecks. We have shown that our performance improvements are robust to dynamic changes, as well as complex congestion patterns. Given the importance of stream processing systems and the ubiquity of dynamic network state in cloud environments, our results represent a significant and practical solution to these problems and deficiencies.