  Efficient construction of the suffix tree given an input text is an active
area of research from the time it was first introduced. Both theoretical
computer scientists and engineers tackled the problem. In this paper we focus
on the fastest practical suffix tree construction algorithm to date, ERA. We
first provide a theoretical analysis of the algorithm assuming the uniformly
random text as an input and using the PEM model of computation with respect to
the lower bounds. Secondly, we empirically confirm the theoretical results in
different test scenarios exposing the critical terms. Thirdly, we discuss the
fundamental characteristics of the input text where the fastest suffix tree
construction algorithms in practice fail. This paper serves as a foundation for
further research in the parallel text indexing area.
