Wildcard dimensions, coding theory and fault-tolerant meshes and hypercubes

Hypercubes, meshes and tori are well known interconnection networks for parallel computers. The sets of edges in those graphs can be partitioned to dimensions. It is well known that the hypercube can be extended by adding a wildcard dimension resulting in a folded hypercube that has better fault-tolerant and communication capabilities. First we prove that the folded hypercube is optimal in the sense that only a single wildcard dimension can be added to the hypercube. We then investigate the idea of adding wildcard dimensions to d-dimensional meshes and tori. Using techniques from error correcting codes we construct d-dimensional meshes and tori with wildcard dimensions. Finally, we show how these constructions can be used to tolerate edge and node faults in mesh and torus networks

Interconnection networks for parallel and distributed computing

Parallel computers are generally either shared-memory machines or distributed- memory machines. There are currently technological limitations on shared-memory architectures and so parallel computers utilizing a large number of processors tend tube distributed-memory machines. We are concerned solely with distributed-memory multiprocessors. In such machines, the dominant factor inhibiting faster global computations is inter-processor communication. Communication is dependent upon the topology of the interconnection network, the routing mechanism, the flow control policy, and the method of switching. We are concerned with issues relating to the topology of the interconnection network. The choice of how we connect processors in a distributed-memory multiprocessor is a fundamental design decision. There are numerous, often conflicting, considerations to bear in mind. However, there does not exist an interconnection network that is optimal on all counts and trade-offs have to be made. A multitude of interconnection networks have been proposed with each of these networks having some good (topological) properties and some not so good. Existing noteworthy networks include trees, fat-trees, meshes, cube-connected cycles, butterflies, Möbius cubes, hypercubes, augmented cubes, k-ary n-cubes, twisted cubes, n-star graphs, (n, k)-star graphs, alternating group graphs, de Bruijn networks, and bubble-sort graphs, to name but a few. We will mainly focus on k-ary n-cubes and (n, k)-star graphs in this thesis. Meanwhile, we propose a new interconnection network called augmented k-ary n- cubes. The following results are given in the thesis.1. Let k ≥ 4 be even and let n ≥ 2. Consider a faulty k-ary n-cube Q(^k_n) in which the number of node faults f(_n) and the number of link faults f(_e) are such that f(_n) + f(_e) ≤ 2n - 2. We prove that given any two healthy nodes s and e of Q(^k_n), there is a path from s to e of length at least k(^n) - 2f(_n) - 1 (resp. k(^n) - 2f(_n) - 2) if the nodes s and e have different (resp. the same) parities (the parity of a node Q(^k_n) in is the sum modulo 2 of the elements in the n-tuple over 0, 1, ∙∙∙ , k - 1 representing the node). Our result is optimal in the sense that there are pairs of nodes and fault configurations for which these bounds cannot be improved, and it answers questions recently posed by Yang, Tan and Hsu, and by Fu. Furthermore, we extend known results, obtained by Kim and Park, for the case when n = 2.2. We give precise solutions to problems posed by Wang, An, Pan, Wang and Qu and by Hsieh, Lin and Huang. In particular, we show that Q(^k_n) is bi-panconnected and edge-bipancyclic, when k ≥ 3 and n ≥ 2, and we also show that when k is odd, Q(^k_n) is m-panconnected, for m = (^n(k - 1) + 2k - 6’ / ‘_2), and (k -1) pancyclic (these bounds are optimal). We introduce a path-shortening technique, called progressive shortening, and strengthen existing results, showing that when paths are formed using progressive shortening then these paths can be efficiently constructed and used to solve a problem relating to the distributed simulation of linear arrays and cycles in a parallel machine whose interconnection network is Q(^k_n) even in the presence of a faulty processor.3. We define an interconnection network AQ(^k_n) which we call the augmented k-ary n-cube by extending a k-ary n-cube in a manner analogous to the existing extension of an n-dimensional hypercube to an n-dimensional augmented cube. We prove that the augmented k-ary n-cube Q(^k_n) has a number of attractive properties (in the context of parallel computing). For example, we show that the augmented k-ary n-cube Q(^k_n) - is a Cayley graph (and so is vertex-symmetric); has connectivity 4n - 2, and is such that we can build a set of 4n - 2 mutually disjoint paths joining any two distinct vertices so that the path of maximal length has length at most max{{n- l)k- (n-2), k + 7}; has diameter [(^k) / (_3)] + [(^k - 1) /( _3)], when n = 2; and has diameter at most (^k) / (_4) (n+ 1), for n ≥ 3 and k even, and at most [(^k)/ (_4) (n + 1) + (^n) / (_4), for n ^, for n ≥ 3 and k odd.4. We present an algorithm which given a source node and a set of n - 1 target nodes in the (n, k)-star graph S(_n,k) where all nodes are distinct, builds a collection of n - 1 node-disjoint paths, one from each target node to the source. The collection of paths output from the algorithm is such that each path has length at most 6k - 7, and the algorithm has time complexity O(k(^3)n(^4))

One-to-many node-disjoint paths in (n,k)-star graphs

We present an algorithm which given a source node and a set of n−1 target nodes in the (n,k)-star graph Sn,k, where all nodes are distinct, builds a collection of n−1 node-disjoint paths, one from each target node to the source. The collection of paths output from the algorithm is such that each path has length at most 6k−7, and the algorithm has time complexity O(k2n2)

Lower bounds for dilation, wirelength, and edge congestion of embedding graphs into hypercubes

Interconnection networks provide an effective mechanism for exchanging data between processors in a parallel computing system. One of the most efficient interconnection networks is the hypercube due to its structural regularity, potential for parallel computation of various algorithms, and the high degree of fault tolerance. Thus it becomes the first choice of topological structure of parallel processing and computing systems. In this paper, lower bounds for the dilation, wirelength, and edge congestion of an embedding of a graph into a hypercube are proved. Two of these bounds are expressed in terms of the bisection width. Applying these results, the dilation and wirelength of embedding of certain complete multipartite graphs, folded hypercubes, wheels, and specific Cartesian products are computed

A class of hierarchical graphs as topologies for interconnection networks

We study some topological and algorithmic properties of a recently defined hierarchical interconnection network, the hierarchical crossed cube HCC(k,n), which draws upon constructions used within the well-known hypercube and also the crossed cube. In particular, we study: the construction of shortest paths between arbitrary vertices in HCC(k,n); the connectivity of HCC(k,n); and one-to-all broadcasts in parallel machines whose underlying topology is HCC(k,n) (with both one-port and multi-port store-and-forward models of communication). Moreover, (some of) our proofs are applicable not just to hierarchical crossed cubes but to hierarchical interconnection networks formed by replacing crossed cubes with other families of interconnection networks. As such, we provide a generic construction with accompanying generic results relating to some topological and algorithmic properties of a wide range of hierarchical interconnection networks

Subcube embeddability and fault tolerance of augmented hypercubes

Hypercube networks have received much attention from both parallel processing and communications areas over the years since they offer a rich interconnection structure with high bandwidth, logarithmic diameter, and high degree of fault tolerance. They are easily partitionable and exhibit a high degree of fault tolerance. Fault-tolerance in hypercube and hypercube-based networks received the attention of several researchers in recent years; The primary idea of this study is to address and analyze the reliability issues in hypercube networks. It is well known that the hypercube can be augmented with one dimension to replace any of the existing dimensions should any dimension fail. In this research, it is shown that it is possible to add i dimensions to the standard hypercube, Qn to tolerate (i - 1) dimension failures, where 0 \u3c i ≤ n. An augmented hypercube, Qn +(n) with n additional dimensions is introduced and compared with two other hypercube networks with the same amount of redundancy. Reliability analysis for the three hypercube networks is done using the combinatorial and Markov modeling. The MTTF values are calculated and compared for all three networks. Comparison between similar size hypercube networks show that the augmented hypercube is more robust than the standard hypercube; As a related problem, we also look at the subcube embeddability. Subcube embeddability of the hypercube can be enhanced by introducing an additional dimension. A set of new dimensions, characterized by the Hamming distance between the pairs of nodes it connects, is introduced using a measure defined as the magnitude of a dimension. An enumeration of subcubes of various sizes is presented for a dimension parameterized by its magnitude. It is shown that the maximum number of subcubes for a Qn can only be attained when the magnitude of dimension is n - 1 or n. It is further shown that the latter two dimensions can optimally increase the number of subcubes among all possible choices