Proof labeling schemes

The problem of verifying a Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) was introduced by Tarjan in a sequential setting. Given a graph and a tree that spans it, the algorithm is required to check whether this tree is an MST. This paper investigates the problem in the distributed setting, where the input is given in a distributed manner, i.e., every node “knows” which of its own emanating edges belong to the tree. Informally, the distributed MST verification problem is the following. Label the vertices of the graph in such a way that for every node, given (its own label and) the labels of its neighbors only, the node can detect whether these edges are indeed its MST edges. In this paper we present such a verification scheme with a maximum label size of O(log n log W), where n is the number of nodes and W is the largest weight of an edge. We also give a matching lower bound of Ω(log n log W) (except when W ≤ log n). Both our bounds improve previously known bounds for the problem. Our techniqu...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: PODC
• Authors: Amos Korman, Shay Kutten, David Peleg
• Keywords: Distributed And Parallel Computing, Minimum Spanning Tree, MST Verification Problem, PODC 2005, Sequential Settings