Overlay Network Construction: Improved Overall and Node-Wise Message Complexity
Yi-Jun Chang, Yanyu Chen, Gopinath Mishra
TL;DR
This work advances distributed overlay construction by delivering two efficient protocols in distinct models: a GOSSIP-reply based scheme that builds a star overlay in $O(\log n)$ rounds with $O(n\log n)$ messages (for $b=\Theta(\log n)$), and a HYBRID-based scheme that constructs a well-formed tree in $O(\log^2 n)$ rounds with $O(n\log n)$ messages, while achieving near-optimal node-wise bounds. The HYBRID protocol further enables conversion to constant-degree expanders using prior results, yielding practical routes to robust, low-diameter overlays. A key technical contribution is the use of Boruvka-style merging, a color-based grouping mechanism, and a hashing-based edge-sampling method to reduce communication overhead and ensure termination in polylogarithmic rounds. By achieving $O(n\log^2 n)$ total bits communicated, the approach breaks previous barriers tied to $O(n\log^3 n)$ in distributed sketching, and the methods extend to P2P-CONGEST with favorable node-wise loads. Overall, the paper provides concrete, scalable strategies for overlay reconstruction with strong theoretical guarantees and practical implications for P2P networks and blockchain-based systems.
Abstract
We consider the problem of constructing distributed overlay networks, where nodes in a reconfigurable system can create or sever connections with nodes whose identifiers they know. Initially, each node knows only its own and its neighbors' identifiers, forming a local channel, while the evolving structure is termed the global channel. The goal is to reconfigure any connected graph into a desired topology, such as a bounded-degree expander graph or a well-formed tree (WFT) with a constant maximum degree and logarithmic diameter, minimizing the total number of rounds and message complexity. This problem mirrors real-world peer-to-peer network construction, where creating robust and efficient systems is desired. We study the overlay reconstruction problem in a network of $n$ nodes in two models: \textsf{GOSSIP-reply}{} and \textsf{HYBRID}{}. In the \textsf{GOSSIP-reply}{} model, each node can send a message and receive a corresponding reply message in one round. In the \textsf{HYBRID}{} model, a node can send $O(1)$ messages to each neighbor in the local channel and a total of $O(\log n)$ messages in the global channel. In both models, we propose protocols for WFT construction with $O\left(n \log n\right)$ message complexities using messages of $O(\log n)$ bits. In the \textsf{GOSSIP-reply}{} model, our protocol takes $O(\log n)$ rounds while in the \textsf{HYBRID} model, our protocol takes $O(\log^2 n)$ rounds. Both protocols use $O\left(n \log^2 n\right)$ bits of communication.