We study the fundamental problem of distributed clock synchronization in a basic probabilistic communication setting. We consider a synchronous fully-connected network of n agents, where each agent has a local clock, that is, a counter increasing by one modulo T in each round. The clocks have arbitrary values initially, and they must all indicate the same time eventually. We assume a pull communication model, where in every round each agent receives an -bit message from a random agent. We devise several fast synchronization algorithms that use small messages and are self-stabilizing, that is, the complete initial state of each agent (not just its clock value) can be arbitrary.We first provide a surprising algorithm for synchronizing a binary clock (T = 2) using 1-bit messages ( = 1). This is a variant of the voter model and converges in O(log n) rounds w.h.p., unlike the voter model which needs polynomial time. Next we present an elegant extension of our algorithm that synchronizes a modulo T = 4 clock, with = 1, in O(log n) rounds. Using these two algorithms, we refine an algorithm of Boczkowski et al. (SODA'17), that synchronizes a modulo T clock in polylogarithmic time (in n and T ). The original algorithm uses = 3 bit messages, and each agent receives messages from two agents per round. Our algorithm reduces the message size to = 2, and the number of messages received to one per round, without increasing the running time. Finally, we present two algorithms that simulate our last algorithm achieving < 2, without hurting the asymptotic running time. The first algorithm uses a message space of size 3, i.e., = log 2 (3). The second requires a rough upper bound on log n, and uses just 1-bit messages. More generally, our constructions can simulate any self-stabilizing algorithm that requires a shared clock, without increasing the message size and by only increasing the running time by a constant factor and a polylogarithmic term.
We study the problem of randomized information dissemination in networks. We compare the now standard push-pull protocol, with agent-based alternatives where information is disseminated by a collection of agents performing independent random walks. In the visit-exchange protocol, both nodes and agents store information, and each time an agent visits a node, the two exchange all the information they have. In the meet-exchange protocol, only the agents store information, and exchange their information with each agent they meet. We consider the broadcast time of a single piece of information in an n-node graph for the above three protocols, assuming a linear number of agents that start from the stationary distribution. We observe that there are graphs on which the agent-based protocols are significantly faster than push-pull, and graphs where the converse is true. We attribute the good performance of agent-based algorithms to their inherently fair bandwidth utilization, and conclude that, in certain settings, agent-based information dissemination, separately or in combination with push-pull, can significantly improve the broadcast time. The graphs considered above are highly non-regular. Our main technical result is that on any regular graph of at least logarithmic degree, push-pull and visit-exchange have the same asymptotic broadcast time. The proof uses a novel coupling argument which relates the random choices of vertices in push-pull with the random walks in visit-exchange. Further, we show that the broadcast time of meet-exchange is asymptotically at least as large as the other two's on all regular graphs, and strictly larger on some regular graphs. As far as we know, this is the first systematic and thorough comparison of the running times of these very natural information dissemination protocols. CCS CONCEPTS • Computing methodologies → Distributed algorithms; • Mathematics of computing → Stochastic processes.
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