Dual Failure Resilient BFS Structure

We study {\em breadth-first search (BFS)} spanning trees, and address the problem of designing a sparse {\em fault-tolerant} BFS structure, or {\em FT-BFS } for short, resilient to the failure of up to two edges in the given undirected unweighted graph $G$, i.e., a sparse subgraph $H$ of $G$ such that subsequent to the failure of up to two edges, the surviving part $H'$ of $H$ still contains a BFS spanning tree for (the surviving part of) $G$. FT-BFS structures, as well as the related notion of replacement paths, have been studied so far for the restricted case of a single failure. It has been noted widely that when concerning shortest-paths in a variety of contexts, there is a sharp qualitative difference between a single failure and two or more failures. Our main results are as follows. We present an algorithm that for every $n$-vertex unweighted undirected graph $G$ and source node $s$ constructs a (two edge failure) FT-BFS structure rooted at $s$ with $O(n^{5/3})$ edges. To provide a useful theory of shortest paths avoiding 2 edges failures, we take a principled approach to classifying the arrangement these paths. We believe that the structural analysis provided in this paper may decrease the barrier for understanding the general case of $f\geq 2$ faults and pave the way to the future design of $f$-fault resilient structures for $f \geq 2$. We also provide a matching lower bound, which in fact holds for the general case of $f \geq 1$ and multiple sources $S \subseteq V$. It shows that for every $f\geq 1$, and integer $1 \leq \sigma \leq n$, there exist $n$-vertex graphs with a source set $S \subseteq V$ of cardinality $\sigma$ for which any FT-BFS structure rooted at each $s \in S$, resilient to up to $f$-edge faults has $\Omega(\sigma^{1/(f+1)} \cdot n^{2-1/(f+1)})$ edges

Small Cuts and Connectivity Certificates: A Fault Tolerant Approach

We revisit classical connectivity problems in the {CONGEST} model of distributed computing. By using techniques from fault tolerant network design, we show improved constructions, some of which are even "local" (i.e., with O~(1) rounds) for problems that are closely related to hard global problems (i.e., with a lower bound of Omega(Diam+sqrt{n}) rounds). Distributed Minimum Cut: Nanongkai and Su presented a randomized algorithm for computing a (1+epsilon)-approximation of the minimum cut using O~(D +sqrt{n}) rounds where D is the diameter of the graph. For a sufficiently large minimum cut lambda=Omega(sqrt{n}), this is tight due to Das Sarma et al. [FOCS \u2711], Ghaffari and Kuhn [DISC \u2713]. - Small Cuts: A special setting that remains open is where the graph connectivity lambda is small (i.e., constant). The only lower bound for this case is Omega(D), with a matching bound known only for lambda <= 2 due to Pritchard and Thurimella [TALG \u2711]. Recently, Daga, Henzinger, Nanongkai and Saranurak [STOC \u2719] raised the open problem of computing the minimum cut in poly(D) rounds for any lambda=O(1). In this paper, we resolve this problem by presenting a surprisingly simple algorithm, that takes a completely different approach than the existing algorithms. Our algorithm has also the benefit that it computes all minimum cuts in the graph, and naturally extends to vertex cuts as well. At the heart of the algorithm is a graph sampling approach usually used in the context of fault tolerant (FT) design. - Deterministic Algorithms: While the existing distributed minimum cut algorithms are randomized, our algorithm can be made deterministic within the same round complexity. To obtain this, we introduce a novel definition of universal sets along with their efficient computation. This allows us to derandomize the FT graph sampling technique, which might be of independent interest. - Computation of all Edge Connectivities: We also consider the more general task of computing the edge connectivity of all the edges in the graph. In the output format, it is required that the endpoints u,v of every edge (u,v) learn the cardinality of the u-v cut in the graph. We provide the first sublinear algorithm for this problem for the case of constant connectivity values. Specifically, by using the recent notion of low-congestion cycle cover, combined with the sampling technique, we compute all edge connectivities in poly(D) * 2^{O(sqrt{log n log log n})} rounds. Sparse Certificates: For an n-vertex graph G and an integer lambda, a lambda-sparse certificate H is a subgraph H subseteq G with O(lambda n) edges which is lambda-connected iff G is lambda-connected. For D-diameter graphs, constructions of sparse certificates for lambda in {2,3} have been provided by Thurimella [J. Alg. \u2797] and Dori [PODC \u2718] respectively using O~(D) number of rounds. The problem of devising such certificates with o(D+sqrt{n}) rounds was left open by Dori [PODC \u2718] for any lambda >= 4. Using connections to fault tolerant spanners, we considerably improve the round complexity for any lambda in [1,n] and epsilon in (0,1), by showing a construction of (1-epsilon)lambda-sparse certificates with O(lambda n) edges using only O(1/epsilon^2 * log^{2+o(1)} n) rounds

Counting to Ten with Two Fingers: Compressed Counting with Spiking Neurons

We consider the task of measuring time with probabilistic threshold gates implemented by bio-inspired spiking neurons. In the model of spiking neural networks, network evolves in discrete rounds, where in each round, neurons fire in pulses in response to a sufficiently high membrane potential. This potential is induced by spikes from neighboring neurons that fired in the previous round, which can have either an excitatory or inhibitory effect. Discovering the underlying mechanisms by which the brain perceives the duration of time is one of the largest open enigma in computational neuro-science. To gain a better algorithmic understanding onto these processes, we introduce the neural timer problem. In this problem, one is given a time parameter t, an input neuron x, and an output neuron y. It is then required to design a minimum sized neural network (measured by the number of auxiliary neurons) in which every spike from x in a given round i, makes the output y fire for the subsequent t consecutive rounds. We first consider a deterministic implementation of a neural timer and show that Theta(log t) (deterministic) threshold gates are both sufficient and necessary. This raised the question of whether randomness can be leveraged to reduce the number of neurons. We answer this question in the affirmative by considering neural timers with spiking neurons where the neuron y is required to fire for t consecutive rounds with probability at least 1-delta, and should stop firing after at most 2t rounds with probability 1-delta for some input parameter delta in (0,1). Our key result is a construction of a neural timer with O(log log 1/delta) spiking neurons. Interestingly, this construction uses only one spiking neuron, while the remaining neurons can be deterministic threshold gates. We complement this construction with a matching lower bound of Omega(min{log log 1/delta, log t}) neurons. This provides the first separation between deterministic and randomized constructions in the setting of spiking neural networks. Finally, we demonstrate the usefulness of compressed counting networks for synchronizing neural networks. In the spirit of distributed synchronizers [Awerbuch-Peleg, FOCS\u2790], we provide a general transformation (or simulation) that can take any synchronized network solution and simulate it in an asynchronous setting (where edges have arbitrary response latencies) while incurring a small overhead w.r.t the number of neurons and computation time

\~{O}ptimal Vertex Fault-Tolerant Spanners in \~{O}ptimal Time: Sequential, Distributed and Parallel

We (nearly) settle the time complexity for computing vertex fault-tolerant (VFT) spanners with optimal sparsity (up to polylogarithmic factors). VFT spanners are sparse subgraphs that preserve distance information, up to a small multiplicative stretch, in the presence of vertex failures. These structures were introduced by [Chechik et al., STOC 2009] and have received a lot of attention since then. We provide algorithms for computing nearly optimal $f$-VFT spanners for any $n$-vertex $m$-edge graph, with near optimal running time in several computational models: - A randomized sequential algorithm with a runtime of $\widetilde{O}(m)$ (i.e., independent in the number of faults $f$). The state-of-the-art time bound is $\widetilde{O}(f^{1-1/k}\cdot n^{2+1/k}+f^2 m)$ by [Bodwin, Dinitz and Robelle, SODA 2021]. - A distributed congest algorithm of $\widetilde{O}(1)$ rounds. Improving upon [Dinitz and Robelle, PODC 2020] that obtained FT spanners with near-optimal sparsity in $\widetilde{O}(f^{2})$ rounds. - A PRAM (CRCW) algorithm with $\widetilde{O}(m)$ work and $\widetilde{O}(1)$ depth. Prior bounds implied by [Dinitz and Krauthgamer, PODC 2011] obtained sub-optimal FT spanners using $\widetilde{O}(f^3m)$ work and $\widetilde{O}(f^3)$ depth. An immediate corollary provides the first nearly-optimal PRAM algorithm for computing nearly optimal $\lambda$-\emph{vertex} connectivity certificates using polylogarithmic depth and near-linear work. This improves the state-of-the-art parallel bounds of $\widetilde{O}(1)$ depth and $O(\lambda m)$ work, by [Karger and Motwani, STOC'93].Comment: STOC 202