Set Reconciliation

Paul Hofmeier 📧 and Emin Karayel 📧

December 3, 2025

Abstract

This entry formally verifies the set reconciliation algorithm with nearly optimal communication complexity, due to Y. Minsky et al. [1]. The algorithm allows two communication partners, who have a similar pair of sets to reconcile them while using messages of nearly optimal size, proportional to a bound on the maximum symmetric difference between the sets. The formalization also introduces an optimization, which reduces the communication complexity even further compared to the original publication.

License

BSD License

Topics

Related publications

  • Minsky, Y., Trachtenberg, A., & Zippel, R. (2003). Set reconciliation with nearly optimal communication complexity. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 49(9), 2213–2218. https://doi.org/10.1109/tit.2003.815784

Session Set_Reconciliation