{"paper":{"title":"A Simple and Robust Protocol for Distributed Counting","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["cs.DS"],"primary_cat":"cs.DC","authors_text":"Edith Cohen, Moshe Shechner, Uri Stemmer","submitted_at":"2025-09-06T23:57:57Z","abstract_excerpt":"We revisit the distributed counting problem, where a server must continuously approximate the total number of events occurring across $k$ sites while minimizing communication. The communication complexity of this problem is known to be $\\Theta(\\frac{k}{\\epsilon}\\log N)$ for deterministic protocols. Huang, Yi, and Zhang (2012) showed that randomization can reduce this to $\\Theta(\\frac{\\sqrt{k}}{\\epsilon}\\log N)$, but their analysis is restricted to the {\\em oblivious setting}, where the stream of events is independent of the protocol's outputs.\n  Xiong, Zhu, and Huang (2023) presented a robust "},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2509.05870","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2509.05870/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}