9 research outputs found
Asynchronous approach in the plane: A deterministic polynomial algorithm
In this paper we study the task of approach of two mobile agents having the
same limited range of vision and moving asynchronously in the plane. This task
consists in getting them in finite time within each other's range of vision.
The agents execute the same deterministic algorithm and are assumed to have a
compass showing the cardinal directions as well as a unit measure. On the other
hand, they do not share any global coordinates system (like GPS), cannot
communicate and have distinct labels. Each agent knows its label but does not
know the label of the other agent or the initial position of the other agent
relative to its own. The route of an agent is a sequence of segments that are
subsequently traversed in order to achieve approach. For each agent, the
computation of its route depends only on its algorithm and its label. An
adversary chooses the initial positions of both agents in the plane and
controls the way each of them moves along every segment of the routes, in
particular by arbitrarily varying the speeds of the agents. A deterministic
approach algorithm is a deterministic algorithm that always allows two agents
with any distinct labels to solve the task of approach regardless of the
choices and the behavior of the adversary. The cost of a complete execution of
an approach algorithm is the length of both parts of route travelled by the
agents until approach is completed. Let and be the initial
distance separating the agents and the length of the shortest label,
respectively. Assuming that and are unknown to both agents, does
there exist a deterministic approach algorithm always working at a cost that is
polynomial in and ? In this paper, we provide a positive answer to
the above question by designing such an algorithm
Asynchronous Approach in the Plane: A Deterministic Polynomial Algorithm
In this paper we study the task of approach of two mobile agents having the same limited range of vision and moving asynchronously in the plane. This task consists in getting them in finite time within each other\u27s range of vision. The agents execute the same deterministic algorithm and are assumed to have a compass showing the cardinal directions as well as a unit measure. On the other hand, they do not share any global coordinates system (like GPS), cannot communicate and have distinct labels. Each agent knows its label but does not know the label of the other agent or the initial position of the other agent relative to its own. The route of an agent is a sequence of segments that are subsequently traversed in order to achieve approach. For each agent, the computation of its route depends only on its algorithm and its label. An adversary chooses the initial positions of both agents in the plane and controls the way each of them moves along every segment of the routes, in particular by arbitrarily varying the speeds of the agents. Roughly speaking, the goal of the adversary is to prevent the agents from solving the task, or at least to ensure that the agents have covered as much distance as possible before seeing each other. A deterministic approach algorithm is a deterministic algorithm that always allows two agents with any distinct labels to solve the task of approach regardless of the choices and the behavior of the adversary. The cost of a complete execution of an approach algorithm is the length of both parts of route travelled by the agents until approach is completed.
Let Delta and l be the initial distance separating the agents and the length of (the binary representation of) the shortest label, respectively. Assuming that Delta and l are unknown to both agents, does there exist a deterministic approach algorithm whose cost is polynomial in Delta and l?
Actually the problem of approach in the plane reduces to the network problem of rendezvous in an infinite oriented grid, which consists in ensuring that both agents end up meeting at the same time at a node or on an edge of the grid. By designing such a rendezvous algorithm with appropriate properties, as we do in this paper, we provide a positive answer to the above question.
Our result turns out to be an important step forward from a computational point of view, as the other algorithms allowing to solve the same problem either have an exponential cost in the initial separating distance and in the labels of the agents, or require each agent to know its starting position in a global system of coordinates, or only work under a much less powerful adversary
Byzantine Gathering in Polynomial Time
Gathering a group of mobile agents is a fundamental task in the field of distributed and mobile systems. This can be made drastically more difficult to achieve when some agents are subject to faults, especially the Byzantine ones that are known as being the worst faults to handle. In this paper we study, from a deterministic point of view, the task of Byzantine gathering in a network modeled as a graph. In other words, despite the presence of Byzantine agents, all the other (good) agents, starting from {possibly} different nodes and applying the same deterministic algorithm, have to meet at the same node in finite time and stop moving. An adversary chooses the initial nodes of the agents (the number of agents may be larger than the number of nodes) and assigns a different positive integer (called label) to each of them. Initially, each agent knows its label. The agents move in synchronous rounds and can communicate with each other only when located at the same node. Within the team, f of the agents are Byzantine. A Byzantine agent acts in an unpredictable and arbitrary way. For example, it can choose an arbitrary port when it moves, can convey arbitrary information to other agents and can change its label in every round, in particular by forging the label of another agent or by creating a completely new one.
Besides its label, which corresponds to a local knowledge, an agent is assigned some global knowledge denoted by GK that is common to all agents. In literature, the Byzantine gathering problem has been analyzed in arbitrary n-node graphs by considering the scenario when GK=(n,f) and the scenario when GK=f. In the first (resp. second) scenario, it has been shown that the minimum number of good agents guaranteeing deterministic gathering of all of them is f+1 (resp. f+2). However, for both these scenarios, all the existing deterministic algorithms, whether or not they are optimal in terms of required number of good agents, have the major disadvantage of having a time complexity that is exponential in n and L, where L is the value of the largest label belonging to a good agent. In this paper, we seek to design a deterministic solution for Byzantine gathering that makes a concession on the proportion of Byzantine agents within the team, but that offers a significantly lower complexity. We also seek to use a global knowledge whose the length of the binary representation (that we also call size) is small. In this respect, assuming that the agents are in a strong team i.e., a team in which the number of good agents is at least some prescribed value that is quadratic in f, we give positive and negative results. On the positive side, we show an algorithm that solves Byzantine gathering with all strong teams in all graphs of size at most n, for any integers n and f, in a time polynomial in n and the length |l_{min}| of the binary representation of the smallest label of a good agent. The algorithm works using a global knowledge of size O(log log log n), which is of optimal order of magnitude in our context to reach a time complexity that is polynomial in n and |l_{min}|. Indeed, on the negative side, we show that there is no deterministic algorithm solving Byzantine gathering with all strong teams, in all graphs of size at most n, in a time polynomial in n and |l_{min}| and using a global knowledge of size o(log log log n)
Byzantine Gathering in Networks
This paper investigates an open problem introduced in [14]. Two or more
mobile agents start from different nodes of a network and have to accomplish
the task of gathering which consists in getting all together at the same node
at the same time. An adversary chooses the initial nodes of the agents and
assigns a different positive integer (called label) to each of them. Initially,
each agent knows its label but does not know the labels of the other agents or
their positions relative to its own. Agents move in synchronous rounds and can
communicate with each other only when located at the same node. Up to f of the
agents are Byzantine. A Byzantine agent can choose an arbitrary port when it
moves, can convey arbitrary information to other agents and can change its
label in every round, in particular by forging the label of another agent or by
creating a completely new one.
What is the minimum number M of good agents that guarantees deterministic
gathering of all of them, with termination?
We provide exact answers to this open problem by considering the case when
the agents initially know the size of the network and the case when they do
not. In the former case, we prove M=f+1 while in the latter, we prove M=f+2.
More precisely, for networks of known size, we design a deterministic algorithm
gathering all good agents in any network provided that the number of good
agents is at least f+1. For networks of unknown size, we also design a
deterministic algorithm ensuring the gathering of all good agents in any
network but provided that the number of good agents is at least f+2. Both of
our algorithms are optimal in terms of required number of good agents, as each
of them perfectly matches the respective lower bound on M shown in [14], which
is of f+1 when the size of the network is known and of f+2 when it is unknown
Byzantine Gathering in Polynomial Time
We study the task of Byzantine gathering in a network modeled as a graph.
Despite the presence of Byzantine agents, all the other (good) agents, starting
from possibly different nodes and applying the same deterministic algorithm,
have to meet at the same node in finite time and stop moving. An adversary
chooses the initial nodes of the agents and assigns a different label to each
of them. The agents move in synchronous rounds and communicate with each other
only when located at the same node. Within the team, f of the agents are
Byzantine. A Byzantine agent acts in an unpredictable way: in particular it may
forge the label of another agent or create a completely new one. Besides its
label, which corresponds to a local knowledge, an agent is assigned some global
knowledge GK that is common to all agents. In literature, the Byzantine
gathering problem has been analyzed in arbitrary n-node graphs by considering
the scenario when GK=(n,f) and the scenario when GK=f. In the first (resp.
second) scenario, it has been shown that the minimum number of good agents
guaranteeing deterministic gathering of all of them is f+1 (resp. f+2). For
both these scenarios, all the existing deterministic algorithms, whether or not
they are optimal in terms of required number of good agents, have a time
complexity that is exponential in n and L, where L is the largest label
belonging to a good agent.
In this paper, we seek to design a deterministic solution for Byzantine
gathering that makes a concession on the proportion of Byzantine agents within
the team, but that offers a significantly lower complexity. We also seek to use
a global knowledge whose the length of the binary representation is small.
Assuming that the agents are in a strong team i.e., a team in which the number
of good agents is at least some prescribed value that is quadratic in f, we
give positive and negative results