As graphs continue to grow in size, we seek ways to effectively process such data at scale. The model of streaming graph processing, in which a compact summary is maintained as each edge insertion deletion is observed, is an attractive one. However, few results are known for optimization problems over such dynamic graph streams. In this paper, we introduce a new approach to handling graph streams, by instead seeking solutions for the parameterized versions of these problems where we are given a parameter @math and the objective is to decide whether there is a solution bounded by @math . By combining kernelization techniques with randomized sketch structures, we obtain the first streaming algorithms for the parameterized versions of the Vertex Cover problem. We consider the following three models for a graph stream on @math nodes: 1. The insertion-only model where the edges can only be added. 2. The dynamic model where edges can be both inserted and deleted. 3. The dynamic model where we are guaranteed that at each timestamp there is a solution of size at most @math . In each of these three models we are able to design parameterized streaming algorithms for the Vertex Cover problem. We are also able to show matching lower bound for the space complexity of our algorithms. (Due to the arXiv limit of 1920 characters for abstract field, please see the abstract in the paper for detailed description of our results)
We present the first deterministic 1+e approximation algorithm for finding a large matching in a bipartite graph in the semi-streaming model which requires only O((1 e)5) passes over the input stream. In this model, the input graph G=(V,E) is given as a stream of its edges in some arbitrary order, and storage of the algorithm is bounded by O(npolylog n) bits, where @math . The only previously known arbitrarily good approximation for general graphs is achieved by the randomized algorithm of McGregor (Proceedings of the International Workshop on Approximation Algorithms for Combinatorial Optimization Problems and Randomization and Computation, Berkeley, CA, USA, pp. 170–181, 2005), which uses Ω((1 e)1 e ) passes. We show that even for bipartite graphs, McGregor’s algorithm needs Ω(1 e) Ω(1 e) passes, thus it is necessarily exponential in the approximation parameter. The design as well as the analysis of our algorithm require the introduction of some new techniques. A novelty of our algorithm is a new deterministic assignment of matching edges to augmenting paths which is responsible for the complexity reduction, and gets rid of randomization. We repeatedly grow an initial matching using augmenting paths up to a length of 2k+1 for k=⌈2 e⌉. We terminate when the number of augmenting paths found in one iteration falls below a certain threshold also depending on k, that guarantees a 1+e approximation. The main challenge is to find those augmenting paths without requiring an excessive number of passes. In each iteration, using multiple passes, we grow a set of alternating paths in parallel, considering each edge as a possible extension as it comes along in the stream. Backtracking is used on paths that fail to grow any further. Crucial are the so-called position limits: when a matching edge is the ith matching edge in a path and it is then removed by backtracking, it will only be inserted into a path again at a position strictly lesser than i. This rule strikes a balance between terminating quickly on the one hand and giving the procedure enough freedom on the other hand. For a given graph G over n vertices, let OPT"G denote the size of an optimal solution in G of a particular minimization problem (e.g., the size of a minimum vertex cover). A randomized algorithm will be called an @a-approximation algorithm with an additive error for this minimization problem if for any given additive error parameter @e>0 it computes a value [email protected]? such that, with probability at least 2 3, it holds that OPT"[email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected]@?OPT"[email protected] Assume that the maximum degree or average degree of G is bounded. In this case, we show a reduction from local distributed approximation algorithms for the vertex cover problem to sublinear approximation algorithms for this problem. This reduction can be modified easily and applied to other optimization problems that have local distributed approximation algorithms, such as the dominating set problem. We also show that for the minimum vertex cover problem, the query complexity of such approximation algorithms must grow at least linearly with the average degree [email protected]? of the graph. This lower bound holds for every multiplicative factor @a and small constant @e as long as [email protected]?=O(n @a). In particular this means that for dense graphs it is not possible to design an algorithm whose complexity is o(n). We give a nearly optimal sublinear-time algorithm for approximating the size of a minimum vertex cover in a graph G. The algorithm may query the degree deg(v) of any vertex v of its choice, and for each 1 ≤ i ≤ deg(v), it may ask for the ith neighbor of v. Letting VCopt(G) denote the minimum size of vertex cover in G, the algorithm outputs, with high constant success probability, an estimate [EQUATION] such that [EQUATION], where e is a given additive approximation parameter. We refer to such an estimate as a (2, e)-estimate. The query complexity and running time of the algorithm are O([EQUATION] · poly(1 e)), where d denotes the average vertex degree in the graph. The best previously known sublinear algorithm, of (STOC 2009), has query complexity and running time O(d4 e2), where d is the maximum degree in the graph. Given the lower bound of Ω(d) (for constant e) for obtaining such an estimate (with any constant multiplicative factor) due to Parnas and Ron (TCS 2007), our result is nearly optimal. In the case that the graph is dense, that is, the number of edges is Θ(n2), we consider another model, in which the algorithm may ask, for any pair of vertices u and v, whether there is an edge between u and v. We show how to adapt the algorithm that uses neighbor queries to this model and obtain an algorithm that outputs a (2, e)-estimate of the size of a minimum vertex cover whose query complexity and running time are O(n) · poly(1 e). 