No Arabic abstract
We investigate graph problems in the following setting: we are given a graph $G$ and we are required to solve a problem on $G^2$. While we focus mostly on exploring this theme in the distributed CONGEST model, we show new results and surprising connections to the centralized model of computation. In the CONGEST model, it is natural to expect that problems on $G^2$ would be quite difficult to solve efficiently on $G$, due to congestion. However, we show that the picture is both more complicated and more interesting. Specifically, we encounter two phenomena acting in opposing directions: (i) slowdown due to congestion and (ii) speedup due to structural properties of $G^2$. We demonstrate these two phenomena via two fundamental graph problems, namely, Minimum Vertex Cover (MVC) and Minimum Dominating Set (MDS). Among our many contributions, the highlights are the following. - In the CONGEST model, we show an $O(n/epsilon)$-round $(1+epsilon)$-approximation algorithm for MVC on $G^2$, while no $o(n^2)$-round algorithm is known for any better-than-2 approximation for MVC on $G$. - We show a centralized polynomial time $5/3$-approximation algorithm for MVC on $G^2$, whereas a better-than-2 approximation is UGC-hard for $G$. - In contrast, for MDS, in the CONGEST model, we show an $tilde{Omega}(n^2)$ lower bound for a constant approximation factor for MDS on $G^2$, whereas an $Omega(n^2)$ lower bound for MDS on $G$ is known only for exact computation. In addition to these highlighted results, we prove a number of other results in the distributed CONGEST model including an $tilde{Omega}(n^2)$ lower bound for computing an exact solution to MVC on $G^2$, a conditional hardness result for obtaining a $(1+epsilon)$-approximation to MVC on $G^2$, and an $O(log Delta)$-approximation to the MDS problem on $G^2$ in $mbox{poly}log n$ rounds.
We address the fundamental network design problem of constructing approximate minimum spanners. Our contributions are for the distributed setting, providing both algorithmic and hardness results. Our main hardness result shows that an $alpha$-approximation for the minimum directed $k$-spanner problem for $k geq 5$ requires $Omega(n /sqrt{alpha}log{n})$ rounds using deterministic algorithms or $Omega(sqrt{n }/sqrt{alpha}log{n})$ rounds using randomized ones, in the CONGEST model of distributed computing. Combined with the constant-round $O(n^{epsilon})$-approximation algorithm in the LOCAL model of [Barenboim, Elkin and Gavoille, 2016], as well as a polylog-round $(1+epsilon)$-approximation algorithm in the LOCAL model that we show here, our lower bounds for the CONGEST model imply a strict separation between the LOCAL and CONGEST models. Notably, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first separation between these models for a local approximation problem. Similarly, a separation between the directed and undirected cases is implied. We also prove a nearly-linear lower bound for the minimum weighted $k$-spanner problem for $k geq 4$, and we show lower bounds for the weighted 2-spanner problem. On the algorithmic side, apart from the aforementioned $(1+epsilon)$-approximation algorithm for minimum $k$-spanners, our main contribution is a new distributed construction of minimum 2-spanners that uses only polynomial local computations. Our algorithm has a guaranteed approximation ratio of $O(log(m/n))$ for a graph with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges, which matches the best known ratio for polynomial time sequential algorithms [Kortsarz and Peleg, 1994], and is tight if we restrict ourselves to polynomial local computations. Our approach allows us to extend our algorithm to work also for the directed, weighted, and client-server variants of the problem.
This document is an informal bibliography of the papers dealing with distributed approximation algorithms. A classic setting for such algorithms is bounded degree graphs, but there is a whole set of techniques that have been developed for other classes. These later classes are the focus of the current work. These classes have a geometric nature (planar, bounded genus and unit-disk graphs) and/or have bounded parameters (arboricity, expansion, growth, independence) or forbidden structures (forbidden minors).
We consider the distributed version of the Multiple Knapsack Problem (MKP), where $m$ items are to be distributed amongst $n$ processors, each with a knapsack. We propose different distributed approximation algorithms with a tradeoff between time and message complexities. The algorithms are based on the greedy approach of assigning the best item to the knapsack with the largest capacity. These algorithms obtain a solution with a bound of $frac{1}{n+1}$ times the optimum solution, with either $mathcal{O}left(mlog nright)$ time and $mathcal{O}left(m nright)$ messages, or $mathcal{O}left(mright)$ time and $mathcal{O}left(mn^{2}right)$ messages.
The tree augmentation problem (TAP) is a fundamental network design problem, in which the input is a graph $G$ and a spanning tree $T$ for it, and the goal is to augment $T$ with a minimum set of edges $Aug$ from $G$, such that $T cup Aug$ is 2-edge-connected. TAP has been widely studied in the sequential setting. The best known approximation ratio of 2 for the weighted case dates back to the work of Frederickson and J{a}J{a}, SICOMP 1981. Recently, a 3/2-approximation was given for unweighted TAP by Kortsarz and Nutov, TALG 2016. Recent breakthroughs give an approximation of 1.458 for unweighted TAP [Grandoni et al., STOC 2018], and approximations better than 2 for bounded weights [Adjiashvili, SODA 2017; Fiorini et al., SODA 2018]. In this paper, we provide the first fast distributed approximations for TAP. We present a distributed $2$-approximation for weighted TAP which completes in $O(h)$ rounds, where $h$ is the height of $T$. When $h$ is large, we show a much faster 4-approximation algorithm for the unweighted case, completing in $O(D+sqrt{n}log^*{n})$ rounds, where $n$ is the number of vertices and $D$ is the diameter of $G$. Immediate consequences of our results are an $O(D)$-round 2-approximation algorithm for the minimum size 2-edge-connected spanning subgraph, which significantly improves upon the running time of previous approximation algorithms, and an $O(h_{MST}+sqrt{n}log^{*}{n})$-round 3-approximation algorithm for the weighted case, where $h_{MST}$ is the height of the MST of the graph. Additional applications are algorithms for verifying 2-edge-connectivity and for augmenting the connectivity of any connected spanning subgraph to 2. Finally, we complement our study with proving lower bounds for distributed approximations of TAP.
In the minimum $k$-edge-connected spanning subgraph ($k$-ECSS) problem the goal is to find the minimum weight subgraph resistant to up to $k-1$ edge failures. This is a central problem in network design, and a natural generalization of the minimum spanning tree (MST) problem. While the MST problem has been studied extensively by the distributed computing community, for $k geq 2$ less is known in the distributed setting. In this paper, we present fast randomized distributed approximation algorithms for $k$-ECSS in the CONGEST model. Our first contribution is an $widetilde{O}(D + sqrt{n})$-round $O(log{n})$-approximation for 2-ECSS, for a graph with $n$ vertices and diameter $D$. The time complexity of our algorithm is almost tight and almost matches the time complexity of the MST problem. For larger constant values of $k$ we give an $widetilde{O}(n)$-round $O(log{n})$-approximation. Additionally, in the special case of unweighted 3-ECSS we show how to improve the time complexity to $O(D log^3{n})$ rounds. All our results significantly improve the time complexity of previous algorithms.