ParaCOSM: A Parallel Framework for Continuous Subgraph Matching

Haibin Lai, Sicheng Zhou, Site Fan, Zhuozhao Li*

Abstract

Continuous Subgraph Matching (CSM) has been widely studied, yet most single-threaded algorithms struggle with large query graphs. Existing CSM algorithms on CPU suffer from load imbalance in searching and sequential updates to the index structure.

In this paper, we present ParaCOSM (Parallel COntinuous Subgraph Matching), an efficient parallel framework for existing CSM algorithms on CPU. ParaCOSM leverages two levels of parallelism: inner-update parallelism and inter-update parallelism. Inner-update parallelism uses a fine-grain parallelism approach to decompose the search tree during each CSM query, enabling efficient search for large queries under load balancing. In inter-update parallelism, we introduce an innovative safe-update mechanism that uses multi-threading to verify the safety of multiple updates, thereby enhancing the overall throughput of the system under large-scale update scenarios. ParaCOSM achieves 1.2 X to 30.2 speedups across datasets and up to two orders of magnitude faster execution, with up to 71% higher success rates on large query graphs.

Latest News

• [2025/09] ParaCOSM won CCFSys2025 Graph Computing Challenge with excellent prize.
• [2025/09] ParaCOSM announce path for developing plan 1.1 .
• [2025/09] ParaCOSM is presented in 54th International Conference on Parallel Processing (ICPP25)!
• [2025/08] We are excited to open source the alpha release of ParaCOSM!
• [2025/07] The main documents and analysis of CSM problem are summarized.
• [2025/04] The main codes and structures for ParaCOSM are finished.
• [2025/04] ParaCOSM now support CaLiG and NewSP algorithms in a parallel version.
• [2025/03] ParaCOSM now support Turboflux and Graphflow algorithms in a parallel version.
• [2025/02] ParaCOSM now support Symbi algorithm in a parallel version.

Quick Start

Compiling

Our framework requires c++17 and intel icpx with onetbb. One can compile the code by executing the following commands.

source /path/to/intel/oneAPI/setvars.sh
cd ParaCOSM/CSM/
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
make -j

Execution

After a successful compilation, the binary file is created under the build/ directory. One can execute CSM using the following command.

build/csm -q <query-graph-path> -d <data-graph-path> -u <update-stream-path> -a <algorithm>

where <algorithm> is chosen from parallel_graphflow, parallel_turboflux, and parallel_symbi etc.

build/csm -q <query-graph-path> -d <data-graph-path> -u <update-stream-path> -a <algorithm> --max-results 1 --time-limit 3600

Input File Format

Both the input query graph and data graph are vertex- and edge-labeled. Each vertex is represented by a distinct unsigned integer (from 0 to 4294967295). There is at most one edge between two arbitrary vertices.

Query Graph

Each line in the query graph file represent a vertex or an edge.

1. A vertex is represented by v <vertex-id> <vertex-label>;
2. An edge is represented by e <vertex-id-1> <vertex-id-2> <edge-label>.

The two endpoints of an edge must appear before the edge. For example,

v 0 0
v 1 0
e 0 1 0
v 2 1
e 0 2 1
e 2 1 2

Initial Data Graph

The initial data graph file has the same format as the query graph file.

Graph Update Stream

Graph update stream is a collection of insertions and deletions of a vertex or an edge.

1. A vertex insertion is represented by v <vertex-id> <vertex-label>;
2. A vertex deletion is represented by -v <vertex-id> <vertex-label>;
3. An edge insertion is represented by e <vertex-id-1> <vertex-id-2> <edge-label>;
4. An edge deletion is represented by -e <vertex-id-1> <vertex-id-2> <edge-label>;

The vertex or edge to be deleted must exist in the graph, and the label must be the same as that in the graph. If an edge is inserted to the data graph, both its endpoints must exist. For example,

v 3 1
e 2 3 2
-v 2 1
-e 0 1 0

Develop Guide

We welcome and value any contributions and collaborations. To add your new algorithm, you only need to modify two major funcions in the according files:

1. ParaCOSM/matching_executor/XX

Here you can add your own single thread CSM algorithms, or select a base algorithm like Graphflow for further development.

2. ParaCOSM/core/FindMatchesKernel

Here you can use several parallel kernels for boosting the algorithms, or implement your own kernel using the modules.

Dataset

The datasets and corresponding querysets used in our paper can be downloaded from https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TufsHlMTar7gajpdRIu188P2VqBYdlL_?usp=sharing

Acknowledgement

This project codes is adapted from ContinuousSubgraphMatching, which is licensed under the MIT License.
We would like to thank the original authors for their great work.

Citation

If you use ParaCOSM for your research, please cite our paper:

@inproceedings{lai2025paracosm,
  author    = {Haibin Lai and Sicheng Zhou and Site Fan and Zhuozhao Li},
  title     = {ParaCOSM: A Parallel Framework for Continuous Subgraph Matching},
  booktitle = {54th International Conference on Parallel Processing (ICPP '25)},
  year      = {2025},
  location  = {San Diego, CA, USA},
  doi       = {10.1145/3754598.3754603}
}