Palgol: A High-Level DSL for Vertex-Centric Graph Processing with Remote Data Access

Abstract

Pregel is a popular distributed computing model for dealing with large-scale graphs. However, it can be tricky to implement graph algorithms correctly and efficiently in Pregel’s vertex-centric model, especially when the algorithm has multiple computation stages, complicated data dependencies, or even communication over dynamic internal data structures. Some domain-specific languages (DSLs) have been proposed to provide more intuitive ways to implement graph algorithms, but due to the lack of support for remote access — reading or writing attributes of other vertices through references — they cannot handle the above mentioned dynamic communication, causing a class of Pregel algorithms with fast convergence impossible to implement.