Communication-efficient parallel algorithms for distributed random-access machines

This paper introduces a model for parallel computation, called thedistributed randomaccess machine (DRAM), in which the communication requirements of parallel algorithms can be evaluated. A DRAM is an abstraction of a parallel computer in which memory accesses are implemented by routing messages through a communication network. A DRAM explicitly models the congestion of messages across cuts of the network.We introduce the notion of aconservative algorithm as one whose communication requirements at each step can be bounded by the congestion of pointers of the input data structure across cuts of a DRAM. We give a simple lemma that shows how to shortcut pointers in a data structure so that remote processors can communicate without causing undue congestion. We giveO(lgn)-step, linear-processor, linear-space, conservative algorithms for a variety of problems onn-node trees, such as computing treewalk numberings, finding the separator of a tree, and evaluating all subexpressions in an expression tree. We giveO(lg² n)-step, linear-processor, linear-space, conservative algorithms for problems on graphs of sizen, including finding a minimum-cost spanning forest, computing biconnected components, and constructing an Eulerian cycle. Most of these algorithms use as a subroutine a generalization of the prefix computation to trees. We show that any suchtreefix computation can be performed inO(lgn) steps using a conservative variant of Miller and Reif's tree-contraction technique.This research was supported in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under Contract N00014-80-C-0622 and by the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-86-K-0593. Charles Leiserson is supported in part by an NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award with matching funds provided by AT&T Bell Laboratories and Xerox Corporation. Bruce Maggs is supported in part by an NSF Fellowship.