We present O(log log n)-round algorithms in the Massively Parallel Computation (MPC) model, withÕ(n) memory per machine, that compute a maximal independent set, a 1 + ε approximation of maximum matching, and a 2 + ε approximation of minimum vertex cover, for any n-vertex graph and any constant ε > 0. These improve the state of the art as follows:• Our MIS algorithm leads to a simple O(log log ∆)-round MIS algorithm in the CONGESTED-CLIQUE model of distributed computing, which improves on theÕ( log ∆)-round algorithm of Ghaffari [PODC'17].• Our O(log log n)-round (1 + ε)-approximate maximum matching algorithm simplifies or improves on the following prior work: O(log 2 log n)-round (1 + ε)-approximation algorithm of Czumaj et al. [STOC'18] and O(log log n)-round (1 + ε)-approximation algorithm of Assadi et al. [SODA'19]. • Our O(log log n)-round (2 + ε)-approximate minimum vertex cover algorithm improves on an O(log log n)-round O(1)-approximation of Assadi et al. [arXiv'17].
The ModelsWe consider two closely related models: Massively Parallel Computation (MPC), and the CONGESTED-CLIQUE model of distributed computing. Indeed, we consider it as a conceptual contribution of this paper to (further) exhibit the proximity of these two models. We next review these models.
The MPC modelThe MPC model was first introduced in [KSV10] and later refined in [GSZ11, BKS13, ANOY14].The computation in this model proceeds in synchronous rounds carried out by m machines. At the beginning of every round, the data (e.g. vertices and edges) is distributed across the machines. During a round, each machine performs computation locally without communicating to other machines. At the end of the round, the machines exchange messages which are used to guide the computation in the next round. In every round, each machine receives and outputs messages that fit into its local memory.Space: In this model, each machine has S words of space. If N is the total size of the data and each machine has S words of space, the typical settings that are of interest are when S is sublinear in N and S · m = Θ(N ). That is, the total memory across all the machines suffices to fit all the data, but is not much larger than that. If we are given a graph on n vertices, in our work we consider the regimes in which S ∈ Θ(n/ polylog n) or S ∈ Θ(n).
Communication vs. computational complexity:Our main focus is the number of rounds required to finish the computation, which is essentially the complexity of the communication needed to solve the problem. Although we do not explicitly state the computational complexity in our results, it will be apparent from the description of our algorithms that the total computation time across all the machines is nearly-linear in the input size.
CONGESTED-CLIQUEA second model that we consider is the CONGESTED-CLIQUE model of distributed computing, which was introduced by Lotker, Pavlov, Patt-Shamir, and Peleg [LPPSP03] and has been stud-ied extensively since then, see e.g.]. In this model, we have n players which can communicate in sync...