A log-star distributed maximal independent set algorithm for growth-bounded graphs

Johannes Schneider, Roger Wattenhofer

Abstract: We present a novel distributed algorithm for the maximal independent set (MIS) problem. On growth-bounded graphs (GBG) our deterministic algorithm finishes in O(log* n) time, n being the number of nodes. In light of Linial's Ω(log* n) lower bound our algorithm is asymptotically optimal. Our algorithm answers prominent open problems in the ad hoc/sensor network domain. For instance, it solves the connected dominating set problem for unit disk graphs in O(log* n) time, exponentially faster than the state-of-the-art algorithm. With a new extension our algorithm also computes a delta+1 coloring in O(log* n) time, where delta is the maximum degree of the graph.