Efficient distributed selection with bounded messages

• Published in: IEEE transactions on parallel and distributed systems Vol. 8; no. 4; pp. 397 - 401
• Main Authors: Negro, A., Santoro, N., Urrutia, J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.04.1997
• Subjects: Algorithm design and analysis; Communication networks; Complexity theory; Computer science; Computer Society; Delay effects; Distributed algorithms; Distributed computing; Network topology; Sorting
• ISSN: 1045-9219
• DOI: 10.1109/71.588617

We consider the problem of selecting the Kth smallest element of a set distributed among the sites of a communication network when the size of messages is bounded; that is, each message is a packet which contains at most c bits, where c/spl ges/1 is a constant. A general selection algorithm using packets is presented and its packet complexity is analyzed. Its complexity is shown to be a significant improvement for a large range of packet sizes over the existing bounds. The proposed technique is then instanciated for specific classes of network topologies; the resulting bounds either match or improve the ones of existing solutions for a large range of values of the packet size. Furthermore, it is bit optimal in star networks.