Abstract

We extend the notion of distributed decision in the framework of distributed network computing, inspired by recent results on so-called distributed graph automata. We show that, by using distributed decision mechanisms based on the interaction between a prover and a disprover, the size of the certificates distributed to the nodes for certifying a given network property can be drastically reduced. For instance, we prove that minimum spanning tree can be certified with O(log(n))-bit certificates in n-node graphs, with just one interaction between the prover and the disprover, while it is known that certifying MST requires Omega(log^2(n))-bit certificates if only the prover can act. The improvement can even be exponential for some simple graph properties.

For instance, it is known that certifying the existence of a nontrivial automorphism requires Omega(n^2) bits if only the prover can act. We show that there is a protocol with two interactions between the prover and the disprover enabling to certify nontrivial automorphism with O(log(n))- bit certificates. These results are achieved by defining and analysing a local hierarchy of decision which generalizes the classical notions of proof-labelling schemes and locally checkable proofs.

@InProceedings{feuilloley_et_al:LIPIcs:2016:6253,
  author =	{Laurent Feuilloley and Pierre Fraigniaud and Juho Hirvonen},
  title =	{{A Hierarchy of Local Decision}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2016)},
  pages =	{118:1--118:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-013-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2016},
  volume =	{55},
  editor =	{Ioannis Chatzigiannakis and Michael Mitzenmacher and Yuval Rabani and Davide Sangiorgi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl--Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2016/6253},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-62536},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2016.118},
  annote =	{Keywords: Distributed Network Computing, Distributed Algorithm, Distributed Decision, Locality}
}