Optimal dynamic distributed MIS

Finding a maximal independent set (MIS) in a graph is a cornerstone task in distributed computing. The local nature of an MIS allows for fast solutions in a static distributed setting, which are logarithmic in the number of nodes or in their degrees. The result trivially applies for the dynamic distributed model, in which edges or nodes may be inserted or deleted. In this paper, we take a different approach which exploits locality to the extreme, and show how to update an MIS in a dynamic distributed setting, either synchronous or asynchronous, with only a single adjustment and in a single round, in expectation. These strong guarantees hold for the complete fully dynamic setting: Insertions and deletions, of edges as well as nodes, gracefully and abruptly. This strongly separates the static and dynamic distributed models, as super-constant lower bounds exist for computing an MIS in the former. Our results are obtained by a novel analysis of the surprisingly simple solution of carefully simulating the greedy sequential MIS algorithm with a random ordering of the nodes. As such, our algorithm has a direct application as a 3-approximation algorithm for correlation clustering. This adds to the important toolbox of distributed graph decompositions, which are widely used as crucial building blocks in distributed computing. Finally, our algorithm enjoys a useful history-independence property, meaning the output is independent of the history of topology changes that constructed that graph. This means the output cannot be chosen, or even biased, by the adversary in case its goal is to prevent us from optimizing some objective function.