Distributed MIS in $O(\log\log{n} )$ Awake Complexity

TL;DR

This paper presents randomized distributed algorithms for computing Maximal Independent Sets with exponentially improved awake complexity, achieving $O( ext{polylog} ext{log} n)$ round complexity, surpassing longstanding bounds.

Contribution

It introduces the first MIS algorithms with $O( ext{polylog} ext{log} n)$ awake complexity, breaking previous round complexity and lower bound barriers.

Findings

MIS computed in $O( ext{log} ext{log} n)$ awake complexity with high probability

Round complexity of $O(( ext{log}^7 n) ext{log} ext{log} n)$ achieved

Enhanced algorithms with $O(( ext{log} ext{log} n) ext{log}^* n)$ awake complexity and near-linear round complexity

Abstract

Maximal Independent Set (MIS) is one of the fundamental and most well-studied problems in distributed graph algorithms. Even after four decades of intensive research, the best-known (randomized) MIS algorithms have $O(\log{n})$ round complexity on general graphs [Luby, STOC 1986] (where $n$ is the number of nodes), while the best-known lower bound is $\Omega(\sqrt{\log{n}/\log\log{n}})$ [Kuhn, Moscibroda, Wattenhofer, JACM 2016]. Breaking past the $O(\log{n})$ round complexity upper bound or showing stronger lower bounds have been longstanding open problems. Our main contribution is to show that MIS can be computed in awake complexity that is exponentially better compared to the best known round complexity of $O(\log n)$ and also bypassing its fundamental $\Omega(\sqrt{\log{n}/\log\log{n}})$ round complexity lower bound exponentially. Specifically, we show that MIS can be computed by a randomized distributed (Monte Carlo) algorithm in $O(\log\log{n} )$ awake complexity with high probability (i.e., with probability at least $1 - n^{-1}$). This algorithm has a round complexity of $O((\log^7 n) \log \log n)$. We also show that we can improve the round complexity at the cost of a slight increase in awake complexity, by presenting a randomized distributed (Monte Carlo) algorithm for MIS that, with high probability, computes an MIS in $O((\log\log{n})\log^*n)$ awake complexity and $O((\log^3 n) (\log \log n) \log^*n)$ round complexity. Our algorithms work in the CONGEST model where messages of size $O(\log n)$ bits can be sent per edge per round.