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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SAND.2022.11

Fast and Succinct Population Protocols for Presburger Arithmetic

Authors: Philipp Czerner, Roland Guttenberg, Martin Helfrich, and Javier Esparza

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 221, 1st Symposium on Algorithmic Foundations of Dynamic Networks (SAND 2022)

Abstract

In their 2006 seminal paper in Distributed Computing, Angluin et al. present a construction that, given any Presburger predicate as input, outputs a leaderless population protocol that decides the predicate. The protocol for a predicate of size m (when expressed as a Boolean combination of threshold and remainder predicates with coefficients in binary) runs in 𝒪(m ⋅ n² log n) expected number of interactions, which is almost optimal in n, the number of interacting agents. However, the number of states of the protocol is exponential in m. This is a problem for natural computing applications, where a state corresponds to a chemical species and it is difficult to implement protocols with many states. Blondin et al. described in STACS 2020 another construction that produces protocols with a polynomial number of states, but exponential expected number of interactions. We present a construction that produces protocols with 𝒪(m) states that run in expected 𝒪(m⁷ ⋅ n²) interactions, optimal in n, for all inputs of size Ω(m). For this, we introduce population computers, a carefully crafted generalization of population protocols easier to program, and show that our computers for Presburger predicates can be translated into fast and succinct population protocols.

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Philipp Czerner, Roland Guttenberg, Martin Helfrich, and Javier Esparza. Fast and Succinct Population Protocols for Presburger Arithmetic. In 1st Symposium on Algorithmic Foundations of Dynamic Networks (SAND 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 221, pp. 11:1-11:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)

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@InProceedings{czerner_et_al:LIPIcs.SAND.2022.11,
  author =	{Czerner, Philipp and Guttenberg, Roland and Helfrich, Martin and Esparza, Javier},
  title =	{{Fast and Succinct Population Protocols for Presburger Arithmetic}},
  booktitle =	{1st Symposium on Algorithmic Foundations of Dynamic Networks (SAND 2022)},
  pages =	{11:1--11:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-224-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{221},
  editor =	{Aspnes, James and Michail, Othon},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SAND.2022.11},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-159535},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SAND.2022.11},
  annote =	{Keywords: population protocols, fast, succinct, population computers}
}

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Invited Talk

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2021.2

State Complexity of Population Protocols (Invited Talk)

Authors: Javier Esparza

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 213, 41st IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2021)

Abstract

Population protocols were introduced by Angluin et al. in 2004 to study the theoretical properties of networks of mobile sensors with very limited computational resources. They have also been proposed as a natural computing model, with molecules, cells, or microorganisms playing the role of sensors. In a population protocol an arbitrary number of indistinguishable, finite-state agents interact randomly in pairs to collectively decide if their initial global configuration satisfies a given property. The property is formalized as a predicate that maps each initial configuration to an output, 0 or 1. Starting from an initial configuration, the agents eventually agree to the correct output almost surely, and continue producing it forever. The protocol is said to stabilize to the correct output. It is well known that population protocols can decide exactly the semilinear predicates, or, equivalently, the predicates expressible in Presburger arithmetic. Current research concentrates on investigating the amount of resources needed to decide a given predicate. The standard resources, time and memory, translate for population protocols into expected time to stabilization, usually called parallel runtime, and number of states of each agent. In this talk we concentrate on the latter. A variant of population protocols allows for a leader, a distinguished finite-state agent that is added to the initial configuration and, intuitively, helps the other agents to organize the computation. In the last years my collaborators and I have obtained upper and lower bounds for the state complexity of population protocols with and without a leader. Define the state complexity of a predicate as the minimal number of states of a protocol that decides the predicate, and STATE(η) as the maximum state complexity of the predicates of size at most η, where predicates are encoded as quantifier-free formulas of Presburger arithmetic with coefficients written in binary. Using techniques from the theory of Petri nets and Vector Addition Systems, we have shown that STATE(η) is polynomially bounded, even for leaderless protocols; this improves on the exponential bound given in 2004 by Angluin and collaborators. We have also proved that STATE(η) ∈ Ω(log log η) for leaderless protocols, even for those deciding very simple predicates of the form x ≥ c for some constant c. In the talk I report on these results, and on two very recent, still unpublished results. Modulo the pending peer-review confirmation, the first result shows the existence of leaderless protocols with a polynomial number of states and linear parallel runtime, and the second, due to Leroux, gives a Ω((log log η)^{1/3}) lower bound for protocols with a leader.

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Javier Esparza. State Complexity of Population Protocols (Invited Talk). In 41st IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 213, p. 2:1, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)

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@InProceedings{esparza:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2021.2,
  author =	{Esparza, Javier},
  title =	{{State Complexity of Population Protocols}},
  booktitle =	{41st IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2021)},
  pages =	{2:1--2:1},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-215-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{213},
  editor =	{Boja\'{n}czyk, Miko{\l}aj and Chekuri, Chandra},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2021.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-155139},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2021.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: Population protocols, state complexity, Petri nets}
}

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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2020.40

Succinct Population Protocols for Presburger Arithmetic

Authors: Michael Blondin, Javier Esparza, Blaise Genest, Martin Helfrich, and Stefan Jaax

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 154, 37th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2020)

Abstract

In [Dana Angluin et al., 2006], Angluin et al. proved that population protocols compute exactly the predicates definable in Presburger arithmetic (PA), the first-order theory of addition. As part of this result, they presented a procedure that translates any formula φ of quantifier-free PA with remainder predicates (which has the same expressive power as full PA) into a population protocol with 2^?(poly(|φ|)) states that computes φ. More precisely, the number of states of the protocol is exponential in both the bit length of the largest coefficient in the formula, and the number of nodes of its syntax tree. In this paper, we prove that every formula φ of quantifier-free PA with remainder predicates is computable by a leaderless population protocol with ?(poly(|φ|)) states. Our proof is based on several new constructions, which may be of independent interest. Given a formula φ of quantifier-free PA with remainder predicates, a first construction produces a succinct protocol (with ?(|φ|³) leaders) that computes φ; this completes the work initiated in [Michael Blondin et al., 2018], where we constructed such protocols for a fragment of PA. For large enough inputs, we can get rid of these leaders. If the input is not large enough, then it is small, and we design another construction producing a succinct protocol with one leader that computes φ. Our last construction gets rid of this leader for small inputs.

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Michael Blondin, Javier Esparza, Blaise Genest, Martin Helfrich, and Stefan Jaax. Succinct Population Protocols for Presburger Arithmetic. In 37th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 154, pp. 40:1-40:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{blondin_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2020.40,
  author =	{Blondin, Michael and Esparza, Javier and Genest, Blaise and Helfrich, Martin and Jaax, Stefan},
  title =	{{Succinct Population Protocols for Presburger Arithmetic}},
  booktitle =	{37th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2020)},
  pages =	{40:1--40:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-140-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{154},
  editor =	{Paul, Christophe and Bl\"{a}ser, Markus},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2020.40},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-119018},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2020.40},
  annote =	{Keywords: Population protocols, Presburger arithmetic, state complexity}
}

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Fast and Succinct Population Protocols for Presburger Arithmetic

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State Complexity of Population Protocols (Invited Talk)

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Succinct Population Protocols for Presburger Arithmetic

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