Deterministic broadcasting time with partial knowledge of the network

We consider the time of deterministic broadcasting in networks whose nodes have limited knowledge of network topology. Each node u knows only the part of the network within knowledge radius r from it, i.e., it knows the graph induced by all nodes at distance at most r from u. Apart from that, each node knows the maximum degree Delta of the network. One node of the network, called the source, has a message which has to reach all other nodes. We adopt the widely studied communication model called the one-way model in which, in every round, each node can communicate with at most one neighbor, and in each pair of nodes communicating in a given round, one can only send a message while the other can only receive it. This is the weakest of all store-and-forward models for point-to-point networks, and hence our algorithms work for other models as well, in at most the same time.We show trade-offs between knowledge radius and time of deterministic broadcasting, when the knowledge radius is small, i.e., when nodes are only aware of their close vicinity. While for knowledge radius 0, minimum broadcasting time is theta(e), where e is the number of edges in the network, broadcasting can be usually completed faster for positive knowledge radius. Our main results concern knowledge radius 1. We develop fast broadcasting algorithms and analyze their execution time. We also prove lower bounds on broadcasting time, showing that our algorithms are close to optimal

The impact of knowledge on broadcasting time in radio networks

We consider the problem of distributed deterministic broadcasting in radio networks. Nodes send messages in synchronous time-slots. Each node v has a given transmission range. All nodes located within this range can receive messages from v. However, a node situated in the range of two or more nodes that send messages simultaneously, cannot receive these messages and hears only noise. Each node knows only its own position and range, as well as the maximum of all ranges. Broadcasting is adaptive: Nodes can decide on the action to take on the basis of previously received messages, silence or noise. We prove a lower bound on broadcasting time in this model and construct a broadcasting protocol whose performance matches this bound for the simplest case when nodes are situated on a line and the network has constant depth. We also show that if nodes do not even know their own range, every broadcasting protocol must be hopelessly slow. While distributed randomized broadcasting algorithms, and, on the other hand, deterministic off-line broadcasting algorithms assuming full knowledge of the radio network, have been extensively studied in the literature, ours are the first results concerning broadcasting algorithms that are distributed and deterministic