We initiate a thorough study of -- producing algorithms for the approximation problems of property testing in the CONGEST model. In particular, for the so-called testing model we emulate sequential tests for nearly all graph properties having @math -sided tests, while in the and models we obtain faster tests for triangle-freeness and bipartiteness respectively. In most cases, aided by parallelism, the distributed algorithms have a much shorter running time as compared to their counterparts from the sequential querying model of traditional property testing. The simplest property testing algorithms allow a relatively smooth transitioning to the distributed model. For the more complex tasks we develop new machinery that is of independent interest. This includes a method for distributed maintenance of multiple random walks.
In this work we study local checkability of network properties like s-t reachability, or whether the network is acyclic or contains a cycle. A structural property S of a graph G is locally checkable, if there is a prover-and-verifier pair (P, V) as follows. The prover P assigns a label to each node in graphs satisfying S. The verifier V is a constant time distributed algorithm that returns Yes at all nodes if G satisfies S and was labeled by P, and No for at least one node if G does not satisfy S, regardless of the node labels. The quality of (P, V) is measured in terms of the label size. We obtain (asymptotically) tight bounds for the bit complexity of the latter two problems for undirected as well as directed networks, where in the directed case we consider one-way and two-way communication, i.e., we distinguish whether communication is possible only in the edge direction or not. For the one-way case we obtain a new asymptotically tight lower bound for the bit complexity of s-t reachability. For the two-way case we devise an emulation technique that allows us to transfer a previously known s-t reachability upper bound without asymptotic loss in the bit complexity. This paper addresses the problem of locally verifying global properties. Several natural questions are studied, such as “how expensive is local verification?” and more specifically, “how expensive is local verification compared to computation?” A suitable model is introduced in which these questions are studied in terms of the number of bits a vertex needs to communicate. The model includes the definition of a proof labeling scheme (a pair of algorithms- one to assign the labels, and one to use them to verify that the global property holds). In addition, approaches are presented for the efficient construction of schemes, and upper and lower bounds are established on the bit complexity of schemes for multiple basic problems. The paper also studies the role and cost of unique identities in terms of impossibility and complexity, in the context of proof labeling schemes. Previous studies on related questions deal with distributed algorithms that simultaneously compute a configuration and verify that this configuration has a certain desired property. It turns out that this combined approach enables the verification to be less costly sometimes, since the configuration is typically generated so as to be easily verifiable. In contrast, our approach separates the configuration design from the verification. That is, it first generates the desired configuration without bothering with the need to verify it, and then handles the task of constructing a suitable verification scheme. Our approach thus allows for a more modular design of algorithms, and has the potential to aid in verifying properties even when the original design of the structures for maintaining them was done without verification in mind. Abstract Borůvka presented in 1926 the first solution of the Minimum Spanning Tree Problem (MST) which is generally regarded as a cornerstone of Combinatorial Optimization. In this paper we present the first English translation of both of his pioneering works. This is followed by the survey of development related to the MST problem and by remarks and historical perspective. Out of many available algorithms to solve MST the Borůvka's algorithm is the basis of the fastest known algorithms.