24 research outputs found
Survey of Distributed Decision
We survey the recent distributed computing literature on checking whether a
given distributed system configuration satisfies a given boolean predicate,
i.e., whether the configuration is legal or illegal w.r.t. that predicate. We
consider classical distributed computing environments, including mostly
synchronous fault-free network computing (LOCAL and CONGEST models), but also
asynchronous crash-prone shared-memory computing (WAIT-FREE model), and mobile
computing (FSYNC model)
On the Distributed Complexity of Large-Scale Graph Computations
Motivated by the increasing need to understand the distributed algorithmic
foundations of large-scale graph computations, we study some fundamental graph
problems in a message-passing model for distributed computing where
machines jointly perform computations on graphs with nodes (typically, ). The input graph is assumed to be initially randomly partitioned among
the machines, a common implementation in many real-world systems.
Communication is point-to-point, and the goal is to minimize the number of
communication {\em rounds} of the computation.
Our main contribution is the {\em General Lower Bound Theorem}, a theorem
that can be used to show non-trivial lower bounds on the round complexity of
distributed large-scale data computations. The General Lower Bound Theorem is
established via an information-theoretic approach that relates the round
complexity to the minimal amount of information required by machines to solve
the problem. Our approach is generic and this theorem can be used in a
"cookbook" fashion to show distributed lower bounds in the context of several
problems, including non-graph problems. We present two applications by showing
(almost) tight lower bounds for the round complexity of two fundamental graph
problems, namely {\em PageRank computation} and {\em triangle enumeration}. Our
approach, as demonstrated in the case of PageRank, can yield tight lower bounds
for problems (including, and especially, under a stochastic partition of the
input) where communication complexity techniques are not obvious.
Our approach, as demonstrated in the case of triangle enumeration, can yield
stronger round lower bounds as well as message-round tradeoffs compared to
approaches that use communication complexity techniques
Distributed Approximation Algorithms for Weighted Shortest Paths
A distributed network is modeled by a graph having nodes (processors) and
diameter . We study the time complexity of approximating {\em weighted}
(undirected) shortest paths on distributed networks with a {\em
bandwidth restriction} on edges (the standard synchronous \congest model). The
question whether approximation algorithms help speed up the shortest paths
(more precisely distance computation) was raised since at least 2004 by Elkin
(SIGACT News 2004). The unweighted case of this problem is well-understood
while its weighted counterpart is fundamental problem in the area of
distributed approximation algorithms and remains widely open. We present new
algorithms for computing both single-source shortest paths (\sssp) and
all-pairs shortest paths (\apsp) in the weighted case.
Our main result is an algorithm for \sssp. Previous results are the classic
-time Bellman-Ford algorithm and an -time
-approximation algorithm, for any integer
, which follows from the result of Lenzen and Patt-Shamir (STOC 2013).
(Note that Lenzen and Patt-Shamir in fact solve a harder problem, and we use
to hide the O(\poly\log n) term.) We present an -time -approximation algorithm for \sssp. This
algorithm is {\em sublinear-time} as long as is sublinear, thus yielding a
sublinear-time algorithm with almost optimal solution. When is small, our
running time matches the lower bound of by Das Sarma
et al. (SICOMP 2012), which holds even when , up to a
\poly\log n factor.Comment: Full version of STOC 201
Distributed Quantum Proofs for Replicated Data
This paper tackles the issue of checking that all copies of a large data set replicated at several nodes of a network are identical. The fact that the replicas may be located at distant nodes prevents the system from verifying their equality locally, i.e., by having each node consult only nodes in its vicinity. On the other hand, it remains possible to assign certificates to the nodes, so that verifying the consistency of the replicas can be achieved locally. However, we show that, as the replicated data is large, classical certification mechanisms, including distributed Merlin-Arthur protocols, cannot guarantee good completeness and soundness simultaneously, unless they use very large certificates. The main result of this paper is a distributed quantum Merlin-Arthur protocol enabling the nodes to collectively check the consistency of the replicas, based on small certificates, and in a single round of message exchange between neighbors, with short messages. In particular, the certificate-size is logarithmic in the size of the data set, which gives an exponential advantage over classical certification mechanisms. We propose yet another usage of a fundamental quantum primitive, called the SWAP test, in order to show our main result