Fast Coloring Despite Congested Relays

We provide a $O(\log^6 \log n)$-round randomized algorithm for distance-2 coloring in CONGEST with $\Delta^2+1$ colors. For $\Delta\gg\operatorname{poly}\log n$, this improves exponentially on the $O(\log\Delta+\operatorname{poly}\log\log n)$ algorithm of [Halld\órsson, Kuhn, Maus, Nolin, DISC'20]. Our study is motivated by the ubiquity and hardness of local reductions in CONGEST. For instance, algorithms for the Local Lov\ász Lemma [Moser, Tardos, JACM'10; Fischer, Ghaffari, DISC'17; Davies, SODA'23] usually assume communication on the conflict graph, which can be simulated in LOCAL with only constant overhead, while this may be prohibitively expensive in CONGEST. We hope our techniques help tackle in CONGEST other coloring problems defined by local relations.