On the Complexity of Distributed Edge Coloring and Orientation Problems

Understanding the role of randomness when solving locally checkable labeling (LCL) problems in the LOCAL model has been one of the top priorities in the research on distributed graph algorithms in recent years. For LCL problems in bounded-degree graphs, it is known that randomness cannot help more than polynomially, except in one case: if the deterministic complexity of an LCL problem is in Ω(log n) and its randomized complexity is in o(log n), then the randomized complexity is guaranteed to be O(poly(log log n)) and it is even known to be O(log log n) in bounded-degree trees. However, the fundamental question of which problems with a deterministic complexity of Ω(log n) can be solved exponentially faster using randomization still remains wide open. We make a step towards answering this question by studying a simple, but natural class of LCL problems: so-called degree splitting problems. These problems come in two varieties: coloring problems where the edges of a graph have to be colored with 2 colors and orientation problems where each edge needs to be oriented. For an exact classification, it is most natural to consider the Δ-regular case (for Δ = O(1)), where we obtain the following results. - We exactly characterize the complexity of problems where the edges need to be colored with two colors, say red and blue. We show that for every y ∈ {0,… ,Δ-1}, the problem of red-blue coloring the edges such that every node of degree Δ has either y or y+1 red edges has randomized complexity O(log log n) in general graphs of maximum degree Δ. Any other problem, i.e., any problem that does not allow two consecutive red degrees, is already known to have randomized complexity Ω(log n) even in Δ-regular trees. We note that a set of edges F such that every node has either y or y+1 incident edges in F is also known as a {y,y+1}-factor of a graph. - For edge orientations, we show that for any two r₁ and r₂ such that r₁,r₂ ≤ Δ/2 and r₁+r₂ ≥ Δ/2, there are randomized algorithms with round complexities O(log log n) in trees and Õ(log⁴log n) in general graphs to compute an edge orientation such that all nodes have outdegree r₁ ± O(√{ΔlogΔ}) or Δ-r₂ ± O(√{ΔlogΔ}). Further, there exists a constant c > 0 such that for any 0 ≤ r₁+r₂ ≤ Δ/2, the problem of computing an edge orientation in which all outdegrees are either at most r₁-c⋅ √{Δ} or at least Δ-r₂+c⋅√{Δ} has randomized complexity Ω(log n) even in Δ-regular trees. While our results are cleanest to state for the Δ-regular case, all our algorithms naturally generalize to nodes of any degree d < Δ in general graphs of maximum degree Δ. All our algorithms also naturally generalize to the unbounded degree case and they then have a randomized complexity of Õ(Δ) ⋅ log log n (resp. Õ(Δ ⋅log⁴log n) for orienting general graphs).