Awake Complexity of Distributed Minimum Spanning Tree

We study the distributed minimum spanning tree (MST) problem, a fundamental problem in distributed computing. It is well-known that distributed MST can be solved in \(\tilde{O}(D+\sqrt{n})\) rounds in the standard CONGEST model (where \(n\) is the network size and \(D\) is the network diameter) and this is essentially the best possible round complexity (up to logarithmic factors). However, in resource-constrained networks such as ad hoc wireless and sensor networks, nodes spending so much time can lead to significant spending of resources such as energy. Motivated by the above consideration, we study distributed algorithms for MST under the \emph{sleeping model} [Chatterjee et al., PODC 2020], a model for design and analysis of resource-efficient distributed algorithms. In the sleeping model, a node can be in one of two modes in any round -- \emph{sleeping} or \emph{awake} (unlike the traditional model where nodes are always awake). Only the rounds in which a node is \emph{awake} are counted, while \emph{sleeping} rounds are ignored. A node spends resources only in the awake rounds and hence the main goal is to minimize the \emph{awake complexity} of a distributed algorithm, the worst-case number of rounds any node is awake. We present deterministic and randomized distributed MST algorithms that have an \emph{optimal} awake complexity of \(O(\log n)\) time with a matching lower bound. We also show that our randomized awake-optimal algorithm has essentially the best possible round complexity by presenting a lower bound of \(\tilde{\Omega}(n)\) on the product of the awake and round complexity of any distributed algorithm (including randomized) that outputs an MST. To complement our trade-off lower bound, we present a parameterized family of distributed algorithms that gives an essentially optimal trade-off between the awake complexity and the round complexity.