Randomized proof-labeling schemes

Abstract

Proof-labeling schemes, introduced by Korman et al. (Distrib Comput 22(4):215–233, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00446-010-0095-3 ), are a mechanism to certify that a network configuration satisfies a given boolean predicate. Such mechanisms find applications in many contexts, e.g., the design of fault-tolerant distributed algorithms. In a proof-labeling scheme, predicate verification consists of neighbors exchanging labels, whose contents depends on the predicate. In this paper, we introduce the notion of randomized proof-labeling schemes where messages are randomized and correctness is probabilistic. We show that randomization reduces verification complexity exponentially while guaranteeing probability of correctness arbitrarily close to one. We also present a novel message-size lower bound technique that applies to deterministic as well as randomized proof-labeling schemes. Using this technique, we establish several tight bounds on the verification complexity of MST, acyclicity, connectivity, and longest cycle size.