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A Survey of Distributed Graph Algorithms on Massive Graphs

Lingkai Meng, Yu Shao, Long Yuan, Longbin Lai, Peng Cheng, Xue Li, Wenyuan Yu, Wenjie Zhang, Xuemin Lin, Jingren Zhou

TL;DR

An extensive overview of the current state of the art in distributed graph processing by outlining the challenges and solutions of distributed graph algorithms and presenting an overview of existing general solutions is provided.

Abstract

Distributed processing of large-scale graph data has many practical applications and has been widely studied. In recent years, a lot of distributed graph processing frameworks and algorithms have been proposed. While many efforts have been devoted to analyzing these, with most analyzing them based on programming models, less research focuses on understanding their challenges in distributed environments. Applying graph tasks to distributed environments is not easy, often facing numerous challenges through our analysis, including parallelism, load balancing, communication overhead, and bandwidth. In this paper, we provide an extensive overview of the current state-of-the-art in this field by outlining the challenges and solutions of distributed graph algorithms. We first conduct a systematic analysis of the inherent challenges in distributed graph processing, followed by presenting an overview of existing general solutions. Subsequently, we survey the challenges highlighted in recent distributed graph processing papers and the strategies adopted to address them. Finally, we discuss the current research trends and identify potential future opportunities.

A Survey of Distributed Graph Algorithms on Massive Graphs

TL;DR

An extensive overview of the current state of the art in distributed graph processing by outlining the challenges and solutions of distributed graph algorithms and presenting an overview of existing general solutions is provided.

Abstract

Distributed processing of large-scale graph data has many practical applications and has been widely studied. In recent years, a lot of distributed graph processing frameworks and algorithms have been proposed. While many efforts have been devoted to analyzing these, with most analyzing them based on programming models, less research focuses on understanding their challenges in distributed environments. Applying graph tasks to distributed environments is not easy, often facing numerous challenges through our analysis, including parallelism, load balancing, communication overhead, and bandwidth. In this paper, we provide an extensive overview of the current state-of-the-art in this field by outlining the challenges and solutions of distributed graph algorithms. We first conduct a systematic analysis of the inherent challenges in distributed graph processing, followed by presenting an overview of existing general solutions. Subsequently, we survey the challenges highlighted in recent distributed graph processing papers and the strategies adopted to address them. Finally, we discuss the current research trends and identify potential future opportunities.
Paper Structure (25 sections, 6 figures)

This paper contains 25 sections, 6 figures.

Figures (6)

  • Figure 1: A comprehensive graph that encapsulates the surveyed material.
  • Figure 2: Outline of the Survey
  • Figure 3: The framework of the distributed graph processing. The graph is divided into several partitions that are assigned to different machines. Vertices in different partitions require a global communication to send messages while vertices in the same partition can exchange messages by local communication. The volume of one communication has a limitation called bandwidth, indicating the largest size of a single message.
  • Figure 6: An example of the Subgraph-Centric model is shown in (b). Compared to the Vertex-Centric model in (a), where communication occurs between vertices, in (b), local computations are carried out within subgraphs until convergence, and then communication only occurs between subgraphs.
  • Figure 7: The distribution of challenges resolved across various topics
  • ...and 1 more figures

Theorems & Definitions (8)

  • definition 1: Graph
  • definition 2: Density
  • definition 3: Neighbors and Degree
  • definition 4: Path
  • definition 5: Diameter
  • definition 6: Cycle
  • definition 7: Tree
  • definition 8: Subgraph