We show that any randomized algorithm that runs in space S and time T and uses poly(S) random bits can be simulated using only O(S) random bits in space S and time T poly(S). A deterministic simulation in space S follows. Of independent interest is our main technical tool: a procedure which extracts randomness from a defective random source using a small additional number of truly random bits. 1

This is the nineteenth edition of a (usually) quarterly column that covers new developments in the theory of NP-completeness. The presentation is modeled on that used by M. R. Garey and myself in our book ‘‘Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness,’ ’ W. H. Freeman & Co., New York, 1979 (hereinafter referred to as ‘‘[G&J]’’; previous columns will be referred to by their dates). A background equivalent to that provided by [G&J] is assumed, and, when appropriate, cross-references will be given to that book and the list of problems (NP-complete and harder) presented there. Readers who have results they would like mentioned (NP-hardness, PSPACE-hardness, polynomial-time-solvability, etc.) or open problems they would like publicized, should

We show that modified versions of the linear congruential generator and the shift register generator are provably good for amplifying the correctness of a probabilistic algorithm. More precisely, if r random bits are needed for a BPP algorithm to be correct with probability at least 2=3, then O(r + k 2 ) bits are needed to improve this probability to 1 \Gamma 2 \Gammak . We also present a different pseudo-random generator that is optimal, up to a constant factor, in this regard: it uses only O(r + k) bits to improve the probability to 1 \Gamma 2 \Gammak . This generator is based on random walks on expanders. Our results do not depend on any unproven assumptions. Next we show that our modified versions of the shift register and linear congruential generators can be used to sample from distributions using, in the limit, the information-theoretic lower bound on random bits. 1. Introduction Randomness plays a vital role in almost all areas of computer science, both in theory and in...

We quantify the effectiveness of random walks for searching and construction of unstructured peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. For searching, we argue that random walks achieve improvement over flooding in the case of clustered overlay topologies and in the case of re-issuing the same request several times. For construction, we argue that an expander can be maintained dynamically with constant operations per addition. The key technical ingredient of our approach is a deep result of stochastic processes indicating that samples taken from consecutive steps of a random walk can achieve statistical properties similar to independent sampling (if the second eigenvalue of the transition matrix is bounded away from 1, which translates to good expansion of the network; such connectivity is desired, and believed to hold, in every reasonable network and network model). This property has been previously used in complexity theory for construction of pseudorandom number generators. We reveal another facet of this theory and translate savings in random bits to savings in processing overhead.

We propose a new approach for constructing P2P networks based on a dynamic decomposition of a continuous space into cells corresponding to processors. We demonstrate the power of these design rules by suggesting two new architectures, one for DHT (Distributed Hash Table) and the other for dynamic expander networks. The DHT network, which we call Distance Halving, allows logarithmic routing and load, while preserving constant degrees. Our second construction builds a network that is guaranteed to be an expander. The resulting topologies are simple to maintain and implement. Their simplicity makes it easy to modify and add protocols. We show it is possible to reduce the dilation and the load of the DHT with a small increase of the degree. We present a provably good protocol for relieving hot spots and a construction with high fault tolerance. Finally we show that, using our approach, it is possible to construct any family of constant degree graphs in a dynamic environment, though with worst parameters. Therefore we expect that more distributed data structures could be designed and implemented in a dynamic environment.

Contents 1 The Magical Mystery Tour 7 1.1 Some Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1.1.1 Hardness results for linear transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1.1.2 Error Correcting Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 1.1.3 De-randomizing Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1.2 Magical Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 1.2.1 A Super Concentrator with O(n) edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 1.2.2 Error Correcting Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 1.2.3 De-randomizing Random Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 1.3 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

We present a new class of asymptotically good, linear error-correcting codes. These codes can be both encoded and decoded in linear time. They can also be encoded by logarithmic-depth circuits of linear size and decoded by logarithmic depth circuits of size 0 (n log n). We present both randomized and explicit constructions of these codes.

Information theory has not yet had a direct impact on networking, although there are similarities in concepts and methodologies that have consistently attracted the attention of researchers from both fields. In this paper, we review several topics that are related to communication networks and that have an information theoretic flavor, including multiaccess protocols, timing channels, effective bandwidth of bursty data sources, deterministic constraints on datastreams, queueing theory, and switching networks. Keywords--- Communication networks, multiaccess, effective bandwidth, switching I. INTRODUCTION Information theory is the conscience of the theory of communication; it has defined the "playing field" within which communication systems can be studied and understood. It has provided the spawning grounds for the fields of coding, compression, encryption, detection, and modulation and it has enabled the design and evaluation of systems whose performance is pushing the limits of wha...

this paper we do two things. First, we survey extractors and dispersers: what they are, how they can be designed, and some of their applications. The work described in the survey is due to a long list of research papers by various authors##most notably by David Zuckerman. Then, we present a new tool for constructing explicit extractors and give two new constructions that greatly improve upon previous results. The new tool we devise, a merger," is a function that accepts d strings, one of which is uniformly distributed and outputs a single string that is guaranteed to be uniformly distributed. We show how to build good explicit mergers, and how mergers can be used to build better extractors. Using this, we present two new constructions. The first construction succeeds in extracting all of the randomness from any somewhat random source. This improves upon previous extractors that extract only some of the randomness from somewhat random sources with enough" randomness. The amount of truly random bits used by this extractor, however, is not optimal. The second extractor we build extracts only some of the randomness and works only for sources with enough randomness, but uses a nearoptimal amount of truly random bits. Extractors and dispersers have many applications in removing randomness" in various settings and in making randomized constructions explicit. We survey some of these applications and note whenever our new constructions yield better results, e.g., plugging our new extractors into a previous construction we achieve the first explicit N-superconcentrators of linear size and polyloglog(N) depth. ] 1999 Academic Press CONTENTS 1.

We show that a unit-cost RAM with a word length of w bits can sort n integers in the range 0 : : 2 w \Gamma1 in O(n log log n) time, for arbitrary w log n, a significant improvement over the bound of O(n p log n) achieved by the fusion trees of Fredman and Willard. Provided that w (log n) 2+ffl for some fixed ffl ? 0, the sorting can even be accomplished in linear expected time with a randomized algorithm. Both of our algorithms parallelize without loss on a unit-cost PRAM with a word length of w bits. The first one yields an algorithm that uses O(logn) time and O(n log log n) operations on a deterministic CRCW PRAM. The second one yields an algorithm that uses O(log n) expected time and O(n) expected operations on a randomized EREW PRAM, provided that w (log n) 2+ffl for some fixed ffl ? 0. Our deterministic and randomized sequential and parallel algorithms generalize to the lexicographic sorting problem of sorting multiple-precision integers represented in several words. ...