1,524 research outputs found
On the Complexity of Distributed Splitting Problems
One of the fundamental open problems in the area of distributed graph
algorithms is the question of whether randomization is needed for efficient
symmetry breaking. While there are fast, -time randomized
distributed algorithms for all of the classic symmetry breaking problems, for
many of them, the best deterministic algorithms are almost exponentially
slower. The following basic local splitting problem, which is known as the
\emph{weak splitting} problem takes a central role in this context: Each node
of a graph has to be colored red or blue such that each node of
sufficiently large degree has at least one node of each color among its
neighbors. Ghaffari, Kuhn, and Maus [STOC '17] showed that this seemingly
simple problem is complete w.r.t. the above fundamental open question in the
following sense: If there is an efficient -time determinstic
distributed algorithm for weak splitting, then there is such an algorithm for
all locally checkable graph problems for which an efficient randomized
algorithm exists. In this paper, we investigate the distributed complexity of
weak splitting and some closely related problems. E.g., we obtain efficient
algorithms for special cases of weak splitting, where the graph is nearly
regular. In particular, we show that if and are the minimum
and maximum degrees of and if , weak splitting can
be solved deterministically in time
. Further, if and , there is a
randomized algorithm with time complexity
Deterministic Distributed Edge-Coloring via Hypergraph Maximal Matching
We present a deterministic distributed algorithm that computes a
-edge-coloring, or even list-edge-coloring, in any -node graph
with maximum degree , in rounds. This answers
one of the long-standing open questions of \emph{distributed graph algorithms}
from the late 1980s, which asked for a polylogarithmic-time algorithm. See,
e.g., Open Problem 4 in the Distributed Graph Coloring book of Barenboim and
Elkin. The previous best round complexities were by
Panconesi and Srinivasan [STOC'92] and
by Fraigniaud, Heinrich, and Kosowski [FOCS'16]. A corollary of our
deterministic list-edge-coloring also improves the randomized complexity of
-edge-coloring to poly rounds.
The key technical ingredient is a deterministic distributed algorithm for
\emph{hypergraph maximal matching}, which we believe will be of interest beyond
this result. In any hypergraph of rank --- where each hyperedge has at most
vertices --- with nodes and maximum degree , this algorithm
computes a maximal matching in rounds.
This hypergraph matching algorithm and its extensions lead to a number of
other results. In particular, a polylogarithmic-time deterministic distributed
maximal independent set algorithm for graphs with bounded neighborhood
independence, hence answering Open Problem 5 of Barenboim and Elkin's book, a
-round deterministic
algorithm for -approximation of maximum matching, and a
quasi-polylogarithmic-time deterministic distributed algorithm for orienting
-arboricity graphs with out-degree at most ,
for any constant , hence partially answering Open Problem 10 of
Barenboim and Elkin's book
On the Complexity of Local Distributed Graph Problems
This paper is centered on the complexity of graph problems in the
well-studied LOCAL model of distributed computing, introduced by Linial [FOCS
'87]. It is widely known that for many of the classic distributed graph
problems (including maximal independent set (MIS) and -vertex
coloring), the randomized complexity is at most polylogarithmic in the size
of the network, while the best deterministic complexity is typically
. Understanding and narrowing down this exponential gap
is considered to be one of the central long-standing open questions in the area
of distributed graph algorithms. We investigate the problem by introducing a
complexity-theoretic framework that allows us to shed some light on the role of
randomness in the LOCAL model. We define the SLOCAL model as a sequential
version of the LOCAL model. Our framework allows us to prove completeness
results with respect to the class of problems which can be solved efficiently
in the SLOCAL model, implying that if any of the complete problems can be
solved deterministically in rounds in the LOCAL model, we can
deterministically solve all efficient SLOCAL-problems (including MIS and
-coloring) in rounds in the LOCAL model. We show
that a rather rudimentary looking graph coloring problem is complete in the
above sense: Color the nodes of a graph with colors red and blue such that each
node of sufficiently large polylogarithmic degree has at least one neighbor of
each color. The problem admits a trivial zero-round randomized solution. The
result can be viewed as showing that the only obstacle to getting efficient
determinstic algorithms in the LOCAL model is an efficient algorithm to
approximately round fractional values into integer values
Distributed local approximation algorithms for maximum matching in graphs and hypergraphs
We describe approximation algorithms in Linial's classic LOCAL model of
distributed computing to find maximum-weight matchings in a hypergraph of rank
. Our main result is a deterministic algorithm to generate a matching which
is an -approximation to the maximum weight matching, running in rounds. (Here, the
notations hides and factors).
This is based on a number of new derandomization techniques extending methods
of Ghaffari, Harris & Kuhn (2017).
As a main application, we obtain nearly-optimal algorithms for the
long-studied problem of maximum-weight graph matching. Specifically, we get a
approximation algorithm using randomized time and deterministic time.
The second application is a faster algorithm for hypergraph maximal matching,
a versatile subroutine introduced in Ghaffari et al. (2017) for a variety of
local graph algorithms. This gives an algorithm for -edge-list
coloring in rounds deterministically or
rounds randomly. Another consequence (with
additional optimizations) is an algorithm which generates an edge-orientation
with out-degree at most for a graph of
arboricity ; for fixed this runs in
rounds deterministically or rounds randomly
New Classes of Distributed Time Complexity
A number of recent papers -- e.g. Brandt et al. (STOC 2016), Chang et al.
(FOCS 2016), Ghaffari & Su (SODA 2017), Brandt et al. (PODC 2017), and Chang &
Pettie (FOCS 2017) -- have advanced our understanding of one of the most
fundamental questions in theory of distributed computing: what are the possible
time complexity classes of LCL problems in the LOCAL model? In essence, we have
a graph problem in which a solution can be verified by checking all
radius- neighbourhoods, and the question is what is the smallest such
that a solution can be computed so that each node chooses its own output based
on its radius- neighbourhood. Here is the distributed time complexity of
.
The time complexity classes for deterministic algorithms in bounded-degree
graphs that are known to exist by prior work are , , , , and . It is also known
that there are two gaps: one between and , and
another between and . It has been conjectured
that many more gaps exist, and that the overall time hierarchy is relatively
simple -- indeed, this is known to be the case in restricted graph families
such as cycles and grids.
We show that the picture is much more diverse than previously expected. We
present a general technique for engineering LCL problems with numerous
different deterministic time complexities, including
for any , for any , and
for any in the high end of the complexity
spectrum, and for any ,
for any , and
for any in the low end; here
is a positive rational number
On Derandomizing Local Distributed Algorithms
The gap between the known randomized and deterministic local distributed
algorithms underlies arguably the most fundamental and central open question in
distributed graph algorithms. In this paper, we develop a generic and clean
recipe for derandomizing LOCAL algorithms. We also exhibit how this simple
recipe leads to significant improvements on a number of problem. Two main
results are:
- An improved distributed hypergraph maximal matching algorithm, improving on
Fischer, Ghaffari, and Kuhn [FOCS'17], and giving improved algorithms for
edge-coloring, maximum matching approximation, and low out-degree edge
orientation. The first gives an improved algorithm for Open Problem 11.4 of the
book of Barenboim and Elkin, and the last gives the first positive resolution
of their Open Problem 11.10.
- An improved distributed algorithm for the Lov\'{a}sz Local Lemma, which
gets closer to a conjecture of Chang and Pettie [FOCS'17], and moreover leads
to improved distributed algorithms for problems such as defective coloring and
-SAT.Comment: 37 page
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