English

Testing frequency distributions in a stream

Data Structures and Algorithms 2025-08-26 v2

Abstract

We study how to verify specific frequency distributions when we observe a stream of NN data items taken from a universe of nn distinct items. We introduce the \emph{relative Fr\'echet distance} to compare two frequency functions in a homogeneous manner. We consider two streaming models: insertions only and sliding windows. We present a Tester for a certain class of functions, which decides if ff is close to gg or if ff is far from gg with high probability, when ff is given and gg is defined by a stream. If ff is uniform we show a space Ω(n)\Omega(n) lower bound. If ff decreases fast enough, we then only use space O(log2nloglogn)O(\log^2 n\cdot \log\log n). The analysis relies on the Spacesaving algorithm \cite{MAE2005,Z22} and on sampling the stream.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2309.11175,
  title  = {Testing frequency distributions in a stream},
  author = {Claire Mathieu and Michel de Rougemont},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.11175},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

28 pages, 4 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T12:27:01.728Z