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Related papers: Time-optimal self-stabilizing leader election in p…

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This paper focuses on compact deterministic self-stabilizing solutions for the leader election problem. When the protocol is required to be \emph{silent} (i.e., when communication content remains fixed from some point in time during any…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2014-01-21 Lélia Blin , Sébastien Tixeuil

We study uniform population protocols: networks of anonymous agents whose pairwise interactions are chosen at random, where each agent uses an identical transition algorithm that does not depend on the population size $n$. Many existing…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2019-07-30 David Doty , Mahsa Eftekhari

The model of population protocols provides a universal platform to study distributed processes driven by pairwise interactions of anonymous agents. While population protocols present an elegant and robust model for randomized distributed…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2025-09-23 Adam Gańczorz , Leszek Gąsieniec , Tomasz Jurdziński , Jakub Kowalski , Grzegorz Stachowiak

We study population protocols, a model of distributed computing appropriate for modeling well-mixed chemical reaction networks and other physical systems where agents exchange information in pairwise interactions, but have no control over…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2022-01-24 David Doty , Mahsa Eftekhari , Leszek Gąsieniec , Eric Severson , Grzegorz Stachowiak , Przemysław Uznański

We study population protocols, a model of distributed computing appropriate for modeling well-mixed chemical reaction networks and other physical systems where agents exchange information in pairwise interactions, but have no control over…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2021-06-22 David Doty , Mahsa Eftekhari , Eric Severson

This paper presents a randomized self-stabilizing algorithm that elects a leader $r$ in a general $n$-node undirected graph and constructs a spanning tree $T$ rooted at $r$. The algorithm works under the synchronous message passing network…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2020-08-13 Xavier Défago , Yuval Emek , Shay Kutten , Toshimitsu Masuzawa , Yasumasa Tamura

In this paper we study population protocols governed by the {\em random scheduler}, which uniformly at random selects pairwise interactions between $n$ agents. The main result of this paper is the first time and space optimal {\em exact…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2021-06-29 Leszek Gąsieniec , Grzegorz Stachowiak , Przemysław Uznański

We present a loosely-stabilizing phase clock for population protocols. In the population model we are given a system of $n$ identical agents which interact in a sequence of randomly chosen pairs. Our phase clock is leaderless and it…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2021-12-03 Petra Berenbrink , Felix Biermeier , Christopher Hahn , Dominik Kaaser

Population protocols are networks of finite-state agents, interacting randomly, and updating their states using simple rules. Despite their extreme simplicity, these systems have been shown to cooperatively perform complex computational…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2017-04-18 Dan Alistarh , Rati Gelashvili

In this work, we initiate the study of \emph{smoothed analysis} of population protocols. We consider a population protocol model where an adaptive adversary dictates the interactions between agents, but with probability $p$ every such…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2021-05-27 Gregory Schwartzman , Yuichi Sudo

Population protocols are a popular model of distributed computing, in which randomly-interacting agents with little computational power cooperate to jointly perform computational tasks. Inspired by developments in molecular computation, and…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2017-04-18 Dan Alistarh , James Aspnes , David Eisenstat , Rati Gelashvili , Ronald L. Rivest

This paper shows that every leader election protocol requires logarithmic stabilization time both in expectation and with high probability in the population protocol model. This lower bound holds even if each agent has knowledge of the…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2019-11-05 Yuichi Sudo , Toshimitsu Masuzawa

We present a self-stabilizing leader election algorithm for arbitrary networks, with space-complexity $O(\max\{\log \Delta, \log \log n\})$ bits per node in $n$-node networks with maximum degree~$\Delta$. This space complexity is…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2017-02-27 Lélia Blin , Sébastien Tixeuil

The population protocol model describes a network of anonymous agents that interact asynchronously in pairs chosen at random. Each agent starts in the same initial state $s$. We introduce the *dynamic size counting* problem: approximately…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2022-02-28 David Doty , Mahsa Eftekhari

We study the problem of randomized Leader Election in synchronous distributed networks with indistinguishable nodes. We consider algorithms that work on networks of arbitrary topology in two settings, depending on whether the size of the…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2021-01-18 Dariusz R. Kowalski , Miguel A. Mosteiro

This paper concerns designing distributed algorithms that are singularly optimal, i.e., algorithms that are simultaneously time and message optimal, for the fundamental leader election problem in networks. Our main result is a randomized…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2020-08-18 Shay Kutten , William K. Moses , Gopal Pandurangan , David Peleg

Population protocols are a model of distributed computing, in which $n$ agents with limited local state interact randomly, and cooperate to collectively compute global predicates. An extensive series of papers, across different communities,…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2017-07-17 Dan Alistarh , James Aspnes , Rati Gelashvili

This paper concerns {\em randomized} leader election in synchronous distributed networks. A distributed leader election algorithm is presented for complete $n$-node networks that runs in O(1) rounds and (with high probability) uses only…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2013-05-16 Shay Kutten , Gopal Pandurangan , David Peleg , Peter Robinson , Amitabh Trehan

A population protocol describes a set of state change rules for a population of $n$ indistinguishable finite-state agents (automata), undergoing random pairwise interactions. Within this very basic framework, it is possible to resolve a…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2018-04-19 Adrian Kosowski , Przemysław Uznański

We investigate space-time trade-offs for population protocols in sparse interaction graphs. In complete interaction graphs, optimal space-time trade-offs are known for the leader election and exact majority problems. However, it has…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2026-02-19 Joel Rybicki , Jakob Solnerzik , Robin Vacus