Radio networks are a long-studied model for distributed system of devices which communicate wirelessly. When these devices are mobile or have limited capabilities, the system is often best modeled by the ad-hoc variant, in which the devices do not know the structure of the network. A large body of work has been devoted to designing algorithms for the ad-hoc model, particularly for fundamental communications tasks such as broadcasting. Most of these algorithms, however, assume that devices have some network knowledge (usually bounds on the number of nodes in the network @math , and the diameter @math ), which may not always be realistic in systems with weak devices or gradual deployment. Very little is known about what can be done when this information is not available. This is the issue we address in this work, by presenting the first broadcasting algorithms for networks in which nodes have no prior knowledge whatsoever. We demonstrate that lack of parameter knowledge can be overcome at only a small increase in running time. Specifically, we show that in networks without collision detection, broadcast can be achieved in @math time, almost reaching the @math lower bound. We also give an algorithm for directed networks with collision detection, which requires only @math time.
More recently, Ghaffari, Haupler and Khabbazian @cite_2 showed that collision detection can be used to surpass this lower bound, attaining an @math time algorithm. Work by Haeupler and Wajc @cite_14 demonstrated that even without collision detection, the lower bound could be beaten assuming were permitted; that is, nodes have access to a global clock and are allowed to transmit before receiving the source message. Czumaj and Davies @cite_9 extended this approach and obtained a running time of @math for the setting with spontaneous transmissions. However, these algorithms only work in undirected networks.
@cite_9 @cite_14 @cite_2
2003002196 2048113794 2568091325 1984355228
Abstract We address the fundamental distributed problem of leader election in ad hoc radio networks modeled as undirected graphs. A signal from a transmitting node reaches all neighbors but a message is received successfully by a node, if and only if exactly one of its neighbors transmits in this round. If two neighbors of a node transmit simultaneously in a given round, we say that a collision occurred at this node. Collision detection is the ability of nodes to distinguish a collision from silence. We show that collision detection speeds up leader election in arbitrary radio networks. Our main result is a deterministic leader election algorithm working in time O ( n ) in all n -node networks, if collision detection is available, while it is known that deterministic leader election requires time Ω ( n log n ) , even for complete networks, if there is no collision detection. We present a randomized distributed algorithm that in radio networks with collision detection broadcasts a single message in O(D + log6 n) rounds, with high probability. This time complexity is most interesting because of its optimal additive dependence on the network diameter D. It improves over the currently best known O(Dlogn D + log2 n) algorithms, due to Czumaj and Rytter [FOCS 2003], and Kowalski and Pelc [PODC 2003]. These algorithms where designed for the model without collision detection and are optimal in that model. However, as explicitly stated by Peleg in his 2007 survey on broadcast in radio networks, it had remained an open question whether the bound can be improved with collision detection. We also study distributed algorithms for broadcasting k messages from a single source to all nodes. This problem is a natural and important generalization of the single-message broadcast problem, but is in fact considerably more challenging and less understood. We show the following results: If the network topology is known to all nodes, then a k-message broadcast can be performed in O(D + klog n + log2 n) rounds, with high probability. If the topology is not known, but collision detection is available, then a k-message broadcast can be performed in O(D + klog n + log6 n) rounds, with high probability. The first bound is optimal and the second is optimal modulo the additive O(log6 n) term. We consider the problem of computing a maximal independent set (MIS) in an extremely harsh broadcast model that relies only on carrier sensing. The model consists of an anonymous broadcast network in which nodes have no knowledge about the topology of the network or even an upper bound on its size. Furthermore, it is assumed that an adversary chooses at which time slot each node wakes up. At each time slot a node can either beep, that is, emit a signal, or be silent. At a particular time slot, beeping nodes receive no feedback, while silent nodes can only differentiate between none of its neighbors beeping, or at least one of its neighbors beeping. We start by proving a lower bound that shows that in this model, it is not possible to locally converge to an MIS in sub-polynomial time. We then study four different relaxations of the model which allow us to circumvent the lower bound and find an MIS in polylogarithmic time. First, we show that if a polynomial upper bound on the network size is known, it is possible to find an MIS in ( O ( ^3 n) ) time. Second, if we assume sleeping nodes are awoken by neighboring beeps, then we can also find an MIS in ( O ( ^3 n) ) time. Third, if in addition to this wakeup assumption we allow sender-side collision detection, that is, beeping nodes can distinguish whether at least one neighboring node is beeping concurrently or not, we can find an MIS in ( O ( ^2 n) ) time. Finally, if instead we endow nodes with synchronous clocks, it is also possible to find an MIS in ( O ( ^2 n) ) time. We study the problem of waking up a collection of @math processors connected by a multihop ad hoc ratio network with unknown topology, no access to a global clock, and no collision detection mechanism available. Each node in the network either wakes up spontaneously or gets activated by receiving a wake-up signal from another node. All active nodes transmit the wake-up signals according to a given protocol @math . The running time of @math is the number of steps counted from the first spontaneous wake-up until all nodes become activated. We provide two protocols for this problem. The first one is a deterministic protocol with running time @math . Our protocol is based on a novel concept of a shift-tolerant selector to which we refer as a (radio) synchronizer. The second protocol is randomized, and its expected running time is @math , where @math is the diameter of the network. Subsequently we show how to employ our wake-up protocols to solve two other communication primitives: leader election and clock synchronization.