An Efficient Streaming Algorithm for Approximating Graphlet Distributions

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bressan, Marco, Chan, T-H. Hubert, Kuang, Qipeng, Sozio, Mauro
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Bressan, Marco
Chan, T-H. Hubert
Kuang, Qipeng
Sozio, Mauro
author_facet Bressan, Marco
Chan, T-H. Hubert
Kuang, Qipeng
Sozio, Mauro
contents In recent years, the problem of computing the frequencies of the induced $k$-vertex subgraphs of a graph, or \emph{$k$-graphlets}, has become central. One approach for this problem is to sample $k$-graphlets randomly. Classic algorithms for $k$-graphlet sampling require loading the entire graph into main memory, making them impractical for massive graphs. To bypass this limitation, Bourreau et al. (NeurIPS 2024) introduced a \emph{streaming} algorithm that through nontrivial techniques makes only $O(\log n)$ passes using $O(n \log n)$ memory. In this work we break their $O(\log n)$-pass bound by giving an algorithm that, for any fixed $c>0$, makes $O(1/c)$ passes using $\tilde O(n^{1+c})$ memory. As a consequence of their lower bound, our algorithm is optimal up to a factor of $\tilde{O}(n^c)$ in the memory usage. We use this sampling algorithm to obtain an efficient method of approximating $k$-graphlet distributions. Experiments on real-world and synthetic graphs show that our algorithm is always at least as good as the one of Bourreau et al., and outperforms it by orders of magnitude on mildly dense graphs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_25400
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An Efficient Streaming Algorithm for Approximating Graphlet Distributions
Bressan, Marco
Chan, T-H. Hubert
Kuang, Qipeng
Sozio, Mauro
Data Structures and Algorithms
Databases
Social and Information Networks
In recent years, the problem of computing the frequencies of the induced $k$-vertex subgraphs of a graph, or \emph{$k$-graphlets}, has become central. One approach for this problem is to sample $k$-graphlets randomly. Classic algorithms for $k$-graphlet sampling require loading the entire graph into main memory, making them impractical for massive graphs. To bypass this limitation, Bourreau et al. (NeurIPS 2024) introduced a \emph{streaming} algorithm that through nontrivial techniques makes only $O(\log n)$ passes using $O(n \log n)$ memory. In this work we break their $O(\log n)$-pass bound by giving an algorithm that, for any fixed $c>0$, makes $O(1/c)$ passes using $\tilde O(n^{1+c})$ memory. As a consequence of their lower bound, our algorithm is optimal up to a factor of $\tilde{O}(n^c)$ in the memory usage. We use this sampling algorithm to obtain an efficient method of approximating $k$-graphlet distributions. Experiments on real-world and synthetic graphs show that our algorithm is always at least as good as the one of Bourreau et al., and outperforms it by orders of magnitude on mildly dense graphs.
title An Efficient Streaming Algorithm for Approximating Graphlet Distributions
topic Data Structures and Algorithms
Databases
Social and Information Networks
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.25400