GYM: A Multiround Join Algorithm In MapReduce

TL;DR

This paper introduces GYM, a multiround join algorithm in MapReduce that optimizes the tradeoff between rounds and communication cost for computing equijoins, using new notions like intersection width and generalized hypertree decompositions.

Contribution

It presents GYM, a distributed join algorithm that leverages new query complexity measures to improve round and communication efficiency in MapReduce.

Findings

GYM computes joins in O(d + log(n)) rounds with optimized communication.

Introduces intersection width and generalized hypertree decompositions for query analysis.

Provides a spectrum of tradeoffs between communication cost and number of rounds.

Abstract

Multiround algorithms are now commonly used in distributed data processing systems, yet the extent to which algorithms can benefit from running more rounds is not well understood. This paper answers this question for a spectrum of rounds for the problem of computing the equijoin of $n$ relations. Specifically, given any query $Q$ with width $\w$, {\em intersection width} $\iw$, input size $\mathrm{IN}$, output size $\mathrm{OUT}$, and a cluster of machines with $M$ memory available per machine, we show that: (1) $Q$ can be computed in $O(n)$ rounds with $O(n\frac{(\mathrm{IN}^{\w} + \mathrm{OUT})^2}{M})$ communication cost. (2) $Q$ can be computed in $O(\log(n))$ rounds with $O(n\frac{(\mathrm{IN}^{\max(\w, 3\iw)} + \mathrm{OUT})^2}{M})$ communication cost. \end{itemize} Intersection width is a new notion of queries and generalized hypertree decompositions (GHDs) of queries we introduce to capture how connected the adjacent cyclic components of the GHDs are. We achieve our first result by introducing a distributed and generalized version of Yannakakis's algorithm, called GYM. GYM takes as input any GHD of $Q$ with width $\w$ and depth $d$, and computes $Q$ in $O(d + \log(n))$ rounds and $O(n\frac{(\mathrm{IN}^{\w} + \mathrm{OUT})^2}{M})$ communication cost. We achieve our second result by showing how to construct GHDs of $Q$ with width $\max(\w, 3\iw)$ and depth $O(\log(n))$. We describe another technique to construct GHDs with longer widths and shorter depths, demonstrating a spectrum of tradeoffs one can make between communication and the number of rounds.