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Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2026.56

Faster Deterministic Streaming Vertex Coloring

Authors: Shiri Chechik, Hongyi Chen, and Tianyi Zhang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 374, 53rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2026)

Abstract

Graph coloring is a fundamental problem in computer science. In the semi-streaming model, an input graph G on n vertices and maximum degree Δ is presented as a stream of edges, and the goal is to compute a vertex coloring using a small number of colors while storing only Õ(n) bits of memory. Recent work has revealed an exponential separation between randomized and deterministic approaches in this setting: while randomized algorithms can achieve a (Δ+1)-coloring in a single pass [Assadi, Chen, and Khanna, 2019], any single-pass deterministic algorithm requires exp(Δ^Ω(1)) colors [Assadi, Chen, and Sun, 2022]. Consequently, deterministic algorithms that use few colors must necessarily make multiple passes over the stream. Prior to this work, the best known deterministic trade-offs were: an O(Δ²)-coloring in 2 passes, an O(Δ)-coloring in O(log Δ) passes [Assadi, Chen, and Sun, 2022], and a (Δ+1)-coloring in O(log Δ ⋅ log log Δ) passes [Assadi, Chakrabarti, Ghosh, and Stoeckl, 2023]. It remained open whether better trade-offs - particularly with sub-logarithmic pass complexity and linear-in-Δ palette size - were achievable. In this paper, we present a new deterministic semi-streaming algorithm that computes an O(Δ)-coloring in O(√{log Δ}) passes. This is the first deterministic streaming algorithm to achieve a coloring with palette size linear-in-Δ using sublogarithmic-in-Δ passes.

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Shiri Chechik, Hongyi Chen, and Tianyi Zhang. Faster Deterministic Streaming Vertex Coloring. In 53rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 374, pp. 56:1-56:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{chechik_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2026.56,
  author =	{Chechik, Shiri and Chen, Hongyi and Zhang, Tianyi},
  title =	{{Faster Deterministic Streaming Vertex Coloring}},
  booktitle =	{53rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2026)},
  pages =	{56:1--56:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-428-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{374},
  editor =	{Bhattacharya, Sayan and Nanongkai, Danupon and Benedikt, Michael and Puppis, Gabriele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2026.56},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-264453},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2026.56},
  annote =	{Keywords: vertex coloring, streaming}
}

Document

Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.48

Improved Streaming Edge Coloring

Authors: Shiri Chechik, Hongyi Chen, and Tianyi Zhang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 334, 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)

Abstract

Given a graph, an edge coloring assigns colors to edges so that no pairs of adjacent edges share the same color. We are interested in edge coloring algorithms under the W-streaming model. In this model, the algorithm does not have enough memory to hold the entire graph, so the edges of the input graph are read from a data stream one by one in an unknown order, and the algorithm needs to print a valid edge coloring in an output stream. The performance of the algorithm is measured by the amount of space and the number of different colors it uses. This streaming edge coloring problem has been studied by several works in recent years. When the input graph contains n vertices and has maximum vertex degree Δ, it is known that in the W-streaming model, an O(Δ²)-edge coloring can be computed deterministically with Õ(n) space [Ansari, Saneian, and Zarrabi-Zadeh, 2022], or an O(Δ^{1.5})-edge coloring can be computed by a Õ(n)-space randomized algorithm [Behnezhad, Saneian, 2024] [Chechik, Mukhtar, Zhang, 2024]. In this paper, we achieve polynomial improvement over previous results. Specifically, we show how to improve the number of colors to Õ(Δ^{4/3+ε}) using space Õ(n) deterministically, for any constant ε > 0. This is the first deterministic result that bypasses the quadratic bound on the number of colors while using near-linear space.

Cite as

Shiri Chechik, Hongyi Chen, and Tianyi Zhang. Improved Streaming Edge Coloring. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 48:1-48:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{chechik_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.48,
  author =	{Chechik, Shiri and Chen, Hongyi and Zhang, Tianyi},
  title =	{{Improved Streaming Edge Coloring}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{48:1--48:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-372-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{334},
  editor =	{Censor-Hillel, Keren and Grandoni, Fabrizio and Ouaknine, Jo\"{e}l and Puppis, Gabriele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.48},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-234257},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.48},
  annote =	{Keywords: edge coloring, streaming}
}

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Documents authored by Chen, Hongyi

Faster Deterministic Streaming Vertex Coloring

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Improved Streaming Edge Coloring

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