Approximating max-min linear programs with local algorithms

A local algorithm is a distributed algorithm where each node must operate solely based on the information that was available at system startup within a constant-size neighbourhood of the node. We study the applicability of local algorithms to max-min LPs where the objective is to maximise \(\min_k \...

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Published in:arXiv.org
Main Authors: Floréen, Patrik, Kaski, Petteri, Musto, Topi, Suomela, Jukka
Format: Paper
Language:English
Published: Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 08.10.2007
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ISSN:2331-8422
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Summary:A local algorithm is a distributed algorithm where each node must operate solely based on the information that was available at system startup within a constant-size neighbourhood of the node. We study the applicability of local algorithms to max-min LPs where the objective is to maximise \(\min_k \sum_v c_{kv} x_v\) subject to \(\sum_v a_{iv} x_v \le 1\) for each \(i\) and \(x_v \ge 0\) for each \(v\). Here \(c_{kv} \ge 0\), \(a_{iv} \ge 0\), and the support sets \(V_i = \{v : a_{iv} > 0 \}\), \(V_k = \{v : c_{kv}>0 \}\), \(I_v = \{i : a_{iv} > 0 \}\) and \(K_v = \{k : c_{kv} > 0 \}\) have bounded size. In the distributed setting, each agent \(v\) is responsible for choosing the value of \(x_v\), and the communication network is a hypergraph \(\mathcal{H}\) where the sets \(V_k\) and \(V_i\) constitute the hyperedges. We present inapproximability results for a wide range of structural assumptions; for example, even if \(|V_i|\) and \(|V_k|\) are bounded by some constants larger than 2, there is no local approximation scheme. To contrast the negative results, we present a local approximation algorithm which achieves good approximation ratios if we can bound the relative growth of the vertex neighbourhoods in \(\mathcal{H}\).
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ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.0710.1499