Brief Announcement: New Clocks, Fast Line Formation and Self-Replication Population Protocols

In this paper we consider a known variant of the standard population protocol model in which agents can be connected by edges, referred to as the network constructor model. During an interaction between two agents the relevant connecting edge can be formed, maintained or eliminated by the transition function. The state space of agents is fixed (constant size) and the size n of the population is not known, i.e., not hard-coded in the transition function. Since pairs of agents are chosen uniformly at random the status of each edge is updated every Θ(n2) interactions in expectation which coincides with Θ(n) parallel time. This phenomenon provides a natural lower bound on the time complexity for any non-trivial network construction designed for this variant. This is in contrast with the standard population protocol model in which efficient protocols operate in O(poly log n) parallel time. The main focus in this paper is on efficient manipulation of linear structures including formation, self-replication and distribution (including pipelining) of complex information in the adopted model. We propose and analyse a novel edge based phase clock counting parallel time Θ(n log n) in the network constructor model, showing also that its leader based counterpart provides the same time guaranties in the standard population protocol model. Note that all currently known phase clocks can count parallel time not exceeding O(poly log n). The new clock enables a nearly optimal O(n log n) parallel time spanning line construction (a key component of universal network construction), which improves dramatically on the best currently known O(n2) parallel time protocol, solving the main open problem in the considered model [9]. We propose a new probabilistic bubble-sort algorithm in which random comparisons and transfers are allowed only between the adjacent positions in the sequence. Utilising a novel potential function reasoning we show that rather surprisingly this probabilistic sorting (via conditional pipelining) procedure requires O(n2) comparisons in expectation and whp, and is on par with its deterministic counterpart. We propose the first population protocol allowing self-replication of a strand of an arbitrary length k (carrying a k-bit message of size independent of the state space) in parallel time O(n(k + log n)). The pipelining mechanism and the time complexity analysis of the strand self-replication protocol mimic those used in the probabilistic bubble-sort. The new protocol permits also simultaneous self-replication, where l copies of the strand can be created in time O(n(k + log n) log l). Finally, we discuss application of the strand self-replication protocol to pattern matching. Our protocols are always correct and provide time guaranties with high probability defined as 1 - n-η, for a constant η > 0

Time, Clocks and Efficiency of Population Protocols (Invited Paper)

The model of population protocols is used to study distributed processes based on pairwise interactions between simple anonymous agents drawn from a large population of size n. The order in which agents meet in pairs is determined by the random scheduler, s.t., each consecutive pair is chosen uniformly at random. After each interaction the state of the relevant agents are amended according to the predefined transition function (the actual code of the algorithm) which governs the considered process. The state space of agents is often fixed and the size n is not known in advance, i.e., not hard-coded in the transition function. We assume that a population protocol starts in the predefined initial configuration of agents\u27 states representing the input. And if successful, the protocol stabilises in a final configuration of states forming the output representing the solution to the considered problem. The time complexity of a population protocol refers to the number of interactions required to stabilise this protocol in a final configuration. We also define parallel time as the time complexity divided by n. Note that the parallel time of the system and the expected local time of each agent, i.e., the number of interactions observed by each agent, are correlated. Several mechanisms, known as phase clocks, have been developed to measure parallel time more accurately than counting local interactions. Most of the clocks target counting ?(log n) parallel time required to fully synchronise all agents in the population. There are leader (and junta) based phase clocks which utilise a fixed number of states [D. Angluin et al., 2008; L. G?sieniec and G. Stachowiak, 2021]. This type of clocks allows also counting any poly-logarithmic time while preserving fix state utilisation. The other type refers to leaderless clocks utilising ?(log n) states [D. Alistarh et al., 2018; D. Doty et al., 2021]. This type allows approximate counting of parallel time as fixed resolution clocks [D. Doty et al., 2021] or oscillators [D. Alistarh et al., 2018]. Another clock type introduced recently in [L. G?sieniec et al., 2021] enables counting ?(nlog n) parallel time utilising a fixed number of states and either leaders or connections in the network constructor model. We also discuss parallel efficiency of population protocols referring to protocols operating in ?(polylog n) parallel time, we propose extensions of the population protocol model leading to further improvement in state and time utilisation, and we state some open problems

Collective tree exploration

Kunstkritikk a sorti en janvier 2012 son premier numéro papier, pensé comme une extension et un complément de la version en ligne du journal créé en 2003. Son ambition est de retracer les discours spécifiques aux pays nordiques, souvent délaissés, sans se couper de la scène internationale. Ce numéro ouvre avec un texte de Frans Josef Petersson proposant une réévaluation critique des échanges productifs entre poésie et art contemporain, qui sont de plus en en plus nombreux sur la scène nordiqu..

Search TheoryA Game Theoretic Perspective /

VIII, 303 p. 44 illus.online resource