We consider the problem of electing a leader among nodes in a highly dynamic
network where the adversary has unbounded capacity to insert and remove nodes
(including the leader) from the network and change connectivity at will. We
present a randomized Las Vegas algorithm that (re)elects a leader in O(D\log n)
rounds with high probability, where D is a bound on the dynamic diameter of the
network and n is the maximum number of nodes in the network at any point in
time. We assume a model of broadcast-based communication where a node can send
only 1 message of O(\log n) bits per round and is not aware of the receivers in
advance. Thus, our results also apply to mobile wireless ad-hoc networks,
improving over the optimal (for deterministic algorithms) O(Dn) solution
presented at FOMC 2011. We show that our algorithm is optimal by proving that
any randomized Las Vegas algorithm takes at least omega(D\log n) rounds to
elect a leader with high probability, which shows that our algorithm yields the
best possible (up to constants) termination time.Comment: In Proceedings FOMC 2013, arXiv:1310.459