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Documents authored by Trehan, Amitabh


Document
Amnesiac Flooding: Easy to Break, Hard to Escape

Authors: Henry Austin, Maximilien Gadouleau, George B. Mertzios, and Amitabh Trehan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 356, 39th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2025)


Abstract
Broadcast is a central problem in distributed computing. Recently, Hussak and Trehan [PODC'19/ STACS'20/DC'23] proposed a stateless broadcasting protocol (Amnesiac Flooding), which was surprisingly proven to terminate in asymptotically optimal time (linear in the diameter of the network). However, it remains unclear: (i) Are there other stateless terminating broadcast algorithms with the desirable properties of Amnesiac Flooding, (ii) How robust is Amnesiac Flooding with respect to faults? In this paper we make progress on both of these fronts. Under a reasonable restriction (obliviousness to message content) additional to the fault-free synchronous model, we prove that Amnesiac Flooding is the only strictly stateless deterministic protocol that can achieve terminating broadcast. We achieve this by identifying four natural properties of a terminating broadcast protocol that Amnesiac Flooding uniquely satisfies. In contrast, we prove that even minor relaxations of any of these four criteria allow the construction of other terminating broadcast protocols. On the other hand, we prove that Amnesiac Flooding can become non-terminating or non-broadcasting, even if we allow just one node to drop a single message on a single edge in a single round. As a tool for proving this, we focus on the set of all configurations of transmissions between nodes in the network, and obtain a dichotomy characterizing the configurations, starting from which, Amnesiac Flooding terminates. Additionally, we characterise the structure of sets of Byzantine agents capable of forcing non-termination or non-broadcast of the protocol on arbitrary networks.

Cite as

Henry Austin, Maximilien Gadouleau, George B. Mertzios, and Amitabh Trehan. Amnesiac Flooding: Easy to Break, Hard to Escape. In 39th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 356, pp. 10:1-10:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{austin_et_al:LIPIcs.DISC.2025.10,
  author =	{Austin, Henry and Gadouleau, Maximilien and Mertzios, George B. and Trehan, Amitabh},
  title =	{{Amnesiac Flooding: Easy to Break, Hard to Escape}},
  booktitle =	{39th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2025)},
  pages =	{10:1--10:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-402-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{356},
  editor =	{Kowalski, Dariusz R.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2025.10},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-248273},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2025.10},
  annote =	{Keywords: Amnesiac flooding, Terminating protocol, Algorithm state, Stateless protocol, Flooding algorithm, Network algorithms, Graph theory, Termination, Communication, Broadcast}
}
Document
APPROX
Competitive Query Minimization for Stable Matching with One-Sided Uncertainty

Authors: Evripidis Bampis, Konstantinos Dogeas, Thomas Erlebach, Nicole Megow, Jens Schlöter, and Amitabh Trehan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 317, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2024)


Abstract
We study the two-sided stable matching problem with one-sided uncertainty for two sets of agents A and B, with equal cardinality. Initially, the preference lists of the agents in A are given but the preferences of the agents in B are unknown. An algorithm can make queries to reveal information about the preferences of the agents in B. We examine three query models: comparison queries, interviews, and set queries. Using competitive analysis, our aim is to design algorithms that minimize the number of queries required to solve the problem of finding a stable matching or verifying that a given matching is stable (or stable and optimal for the agents of one side). We present various upper and lower bounds on the best possible competitive ratio as well as results regarding the complexity of the offline problem of determining the optimal query set given full information.

Cite as

Evripidis Bampis, Konstantinos Dogeas, Thomas Erlebach, Nicole Megow, Jens Schlöter, and Amitabh Trehan. Competitive Query Minimization for Stable Matching with One-Sided Uncertainty. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 317, pp. 17:1-17:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)


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@InProceedings{bampis_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2024.17,
  author =	{Bampis, Evripidis and Dogeas, Konstantinos and Erlebach, Thomas and Megow, Nicole and Schl\"{o}ter, Jens and Trehan, Amitabh},
  title =	{{Competitive Query Minimization for Stable Matching with One-Sided Uncertainty}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2024)},
  pages =	{17:1--17:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-348-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{317},
  editor =	{Kumar, Amit and Ron-Zewi, Noga},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2024.17},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-210100},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2024.17},
  annote =	{Keywords: Matching under Preferences, Stable Marriage, Query-Competitive Algorithms, Uncertainty}
}
Document
On the Termination of Flooding

Authors: Walter Hussak and Amitabh Trehan

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


Abstract
Flooding is among the simplest and most fundamental of all graph/network algorithms. Consider a (distributed network in the form of a) finite undirected graph G with a distinguished node v that begins flooding by sending copies of the same message to all its neighbours and the neighbours, in the next round, forward the message to all and only the neighbours they did not receive the message from in that round and so on. We assume that nodes do not keep a record of the flooding event, thus, raising the possibility that messages may circulate infinitely even on a finite graph. We call this history-less process amnesiac flooding (to distinguish from a classic distributed implementation of flooding that maintains a history of received messages to ensure a node never sends the same message again). Flooding will terminate when no node in G sends a message in a round, and, thus, subsequent rounds. As far as we know, the question of termination for amnesiac flooding has not been settled - rather, non-termination is implicitly assumed. In this paper, we show that surprisingly synchronous amnesiac flooding always terminates on any arbitrary finite graph and derive exact termination times which differ sharply in bipartite and non-bipartite graphs. In particular, synchronous flooding terminates in e rounds, where e is the eccentricity of the source node, if and only if G is bipartite, and, otherwise, in j rounds where e < j ≤ e+d+1 and d is the diameter of G. Since e is bounded above by d, this implies termination times of at most d and of at most 2d + 1 for bipartite and non-bipartite graphs respectively. This suggests that if communication/broadcast to all nodes is the motivation, the history-less amnesiac flooding is asymptotically time optimal and obviates the need for construction and maintenance of spanning structures like spanning trees. Moreover, the clear separation in the termination times of bipartite and non-bipartite graphs may suggest possible mechanisms for distributed discovery of the topology/distances in an arbitrary graph. For comparison, we also show that, for asynchronous networks, however, an adversary can force the process to be non-terminating.

Cite as

Walter Hussak and Amitabh Trehan. On the Termination of Flooding. In 37th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 154, pp. 17:1-17:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)


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@InProceedings{hussak_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2020.17,
  author =	{Hussak, Walter and Trehan, Amitabh},
  title =	{{On the Termination of Flooding}},
  booktitle =	{37th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2020)},
  pages =	{17:1--17:13},
  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.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2020.17},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-118786},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2020.17},
  annote =	{Keywords: Flooding algorithm, Network algorithms, Distributed algorithms, Graph theory, Termination, Bipartiteness, Communication, Broadcast}
}
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