In the Steiner Forest problem, a weighted graph and disjoint subsets of the nodes are given. The task is to select a subset of the edges spanning each subset of small weight. I will review this classic NP-hard problem from a distributed point of view, where the computing entities are the graph's nodes, which initially only know to which of the subsets (if any) they belong and what the weights of there incident edges are. Communication occurs in rounds across the graph's edges, where message size is restricted to O(log n) bits.
This is a conference talk intended for a non-specialist audience. Please join and enjoy!