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Zvi Lotker

Publications and source records attributed to Zvi Lotker.

30 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2011

The Topology of Wireless Communication

In this paper we study the topological properties of wireless communication maps and their usability in algorithmic design. We consider the SINR model, which compares the received power of a signal at a receiver against the sum of strengths of other interfering signals plus background noise. To describe the behavior of a multi-station network, we use the convenient representation of a \emph{reception map}. In the SINR model, the resulting \emph{SINR diagram} partitions the plane into reception zones, one per station, and the complementary region of the plane where no station can be heard. We consider the general case where transmission energies are arbitrary (or non-uniform). Under that setting, the reception zones are not necessarily convex or even connected. This poses the algorithmic challenge of designing efficient point location techniques as well as the theoretical challenge of understanding the geometry of SINR diagrams. We achieve several results in both directions. We establish a form of weaker convexity in the case where stations are aligned on a line. In addition, one of our key results concerns the behavior of a $(d+1)$-dimensional map. Specifically, although the $d$-dimensional map might be highly fractured, drawing the map in one dimension higher "heals" the zones, which become connected. In addition, as a step toward establishing a weaker form of convexity for the $d$-dimensional map, we study the interference function and show that it satisfies the maximum principle. Finally, we turn to consider algorithmic applications, and propose a new variant of approximate point location.

cs.DS↗
arXiv2011

Order Optimal Information Spreading Using Algebraic Gossip

In this paper we study gossip based information spreading with bounded message sizes. We use algebraic gossip to disseminate $k$ distinct messages to all $n$ nodes in a network. For arbitrary networks we provide a new upper bound for uniform algebraic gossip of $O((k+\log n + D)Δ)$ rounds with high probability, where $D$ and $Δ$ are the diameter and the maximum degree in the network, respectively. For many topologies and selections of $k$ this bound improves previous results, in particular, for graphs with a constant maximum degree it implies that uniform gossip is \emph{order optimal} and the stopping time is $Θ(k + D)$. To eliminate the factor of $Δ$ from the upper bound we propose a non-uniform gossip protocol, TAG, which is based on algebraic gossip and an arbitrary spanning tree protocol $§$. The stopping time of TAG is $O(k+\log n +d(§)+t(§))$, where $t(§)$ is the stopping time of the spanning tree protocol, and $d(§)$ is the diameter of the spanning tree. We provide two general cases in which this bound leads to an order optimal protocol. The first is for $k=Ω(n)$, where, using a simple gossip broadcast protocol that creates a spanning tree in at most linear time, we show that TAG finishes after $Θ(n)$ rounds for any graph. The second uses a sophisticated, recent gossip protocol to build a fast spanning tree on graphs with large weak conductance. In turn, this leads to the optimally of TAG on these graphs for $k=Ω(\mathrm{polylog}(n))$. The technique used in our proofs relies on queuing theory, which is an interesting approach that can be useful in future gossip analysis.

cs.IT↗
arXiv2010

A note on uniform power connectivity in the SINR model

In this paper we study the connectivity problem for wireless networks under the Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) model. Given a set of radio transmitters distributed in some area, we seek to build a directed strongly connected communication graph, and compute an edge coloring of this graph such that the transmitter-receiver pairs in each color class can communicate simultaneously. Depending on the interference model, more or less colors, corresponding to the number of frequencies or time slots, are necessary. We consider the SINR model that compares the received power of a signal at a receiver to the sum of the strength of other signals plus ambient noise . The strength of a signal is assumed to fade polynomially with the distance from the sender, depending on the so-called path-loss exponent $α$. We show that, when all transmitters use the same power, the number of colors needed is constant in one-dimensional grids if $α>1$ as well as in two-dimensional grids if $α>2$. For smaller path-loss exponents and two-dimensional grids we prove upper and lower bounds in the order of $\mathcal{O}(\log n)$ and $Ω(\log n/\log\log n)$ for $α=2$ and $Θ(n^{2/α-1})$ for $α<2$ respectively. If nodes are distributed uniformly at random on the interval $[0,1]$, a \emph{regular} coloring of $\mathcal{O}(\log n)$ colors guarantees connectivity, while $Ω(\log \log n)$ colors are required for any coloring.

cs.DM↗
arXiv2009

Simple Random Walks on Radio Networks (Simple Random Walks on Hyper-Graphs)

In recent years, protocols that are based on the properties of random walks on graphs have found many applications in communication and information networks, such as wireless networks, peer-to-peer networks and the Web. For wireless networks (and other networks), graphs are actually not the correct model of the communication; instead hyper-graphs better capture the communication over a wireless shared channel. Motivated by this example, we study in this paper random walks on hyper-graphs. First, we formalize the random walk process on hyper-graphs and generalize key notions from random walks on graphs. We then give the novel definition of radio cover time, namely, the expected time of a random walk to be heard (as opposed to visit) by all nodes. We then provide some basic bounds on the radio cover, in particular, we show that while on graphs the radio cover time is O(mn), in hyper-graphs it is O(mnr) where n, m and r are the number of nodes, the number of edges and the rank of the hyper-graph, respectively. In addition, we define radio hitting times and give a polynomial algorithm to compute them. We conclude the paper with results on specific hyper-graphs that model wireless networks in one and two dimensions.

cs.NI↗
arXiv2008

SINR Diagrams: Towards Algorithmically Usable SINR Models of Wireless Networks

The rules governing the availability and quality of connections in a wireless network are described by physical models such as the signal-to-interference & noise ratio (SINR) model. For a collection of simultaneously transmitting stations in the plane, it is possible to identify a reception zone for each station, consisting of the points where its transmission is received correctly. The resulting SINR diagram partitions the plane into a reception zone per station and the remaining plane where no station can be heard. SINR diagrams appear to be fundamental to understanding the behavior of wireless networks, and may play a key role in the development of suitable algorithms for such networks, analogous perhaps to the role played by Voronoi diagrams in the study of proximity queries and related issues in computational geometry. So far, however, the properties of SINR diagrams have not been studied systematically, and most algorithmic studies in wireless networking rely on simplified graph-based models such as the unit disk graph (UDG) model, which conveniently abstract away interference-related complications, and make it easier to handle algorithmic issues, but consequently fail to capture accurately some important aspects of wireless networks. The current paper focuses on obtaining some basic understanding of SINR diagrams, their properties and their usability in algorithmic applications. Specifically, based on some algebraic properties of the polynomials defining the reception zones we show that assuming uniform power transmissions, the reception zones are convex and relatively well-rounded. These results are then used to develop an efficient approximation algorithm for a fundamental point location problem in wireless networks.

cs.NI↗
arXiv2008

Rent, Lease or Buy: Randomized Algorithms for Multislope Ski Rental

In the Multislope Ski Rental problem, the user needs a certain resource for some unknown period of time. To use the resource, the user must subscribe to one of several options, each of which consists of a one-time setup cost (``buying price''), and cost proportional to the duration of the usage (``rental rate''). The larger the price, the smaller the rent. The actual usage time is determined by an adversary, and the goal of an algorithm is to minimize the cost by choosing the best option at any point in time. Multislope Ski Rental is a natural generalization of the classical Ski Rental problem (where the only options are pure rent and pure buy), which is one of the fundamental problems of online computation. The Multislope Ski Rental problem is an abstraction of many problems where online decisions cannot be modeled by just two options, e.g., power management in systems which can be shut down in parts. In this paper we study randomized algorithms for Multislope Ski Rental. Our results include the best possible online randomized strategy for any additive instance, where the cost of switching from one option to another is the difference in their buying prices; and an algorithm that produces an $e$-competitive randomized strategy for any (non-additive) instance.

cs.DS↗
arXiv2007

Many Random Walks Are Faster Than One

We pose a new and intriguing question motivated by distributed computing regarding random walks on graphs: How long does it take for several independent random walks, starting from the same vertex, to cover an entire graph? We study the cover time - the expected time required to visit every node in a graph at least once - and we show that for a large collection of interesting graphs, running many random walks in parallel yields a speed-up in the cover time that is linear in the number of parallel walks. We demonstrate that an exponential speed-up is sometimes possible, but that some natural graphs allow only a logarithmic speed-up. A problem related to ours (in which the walks start from some probabilistic distribution on vertices) was previously studied in the context of space efficient algorithms for undirected s-t connectivity and our results yield, in certain cases, an improvement upon some of the earlier bounds.

math.PR↗
arXiv2006

Tales of Huffman

We study the new problem of Huffman-like codes subject to individual restrictions on the code-word lengths of a subset of the source words. These are prefix codes with minimal expected code-word length for a random source where additionally the code-word lengths of a subset of the source words is prescribed, possibly differently for every such source word. Based on a structural analysis of properties of optimal solutions, we construct an efficient dynamic programming algorithm for this problem, and for an integer programming problem that may be of independent interest.

cs.IT↗
arXiv2006

Power Assignment Problems in Wireless Communication

A fundamental class of problems in wireless communication is concerned with the assignment of suitable transmission powers to wireless devices/stations such that the resulting communication graph satisfies certain desired properties and the overall energy consumed is minimized. Many concrete communication tasks in a wireless network like broadcast, multicast, point-to-point routing, creation of a communication backbone, etc. can be regarded as such a power assignment problem. This paper considers several problems of that kind; for example one problem studied before in \cite{Carrots, Bilo} aims to select and assign powers to $k$ of the stations such that all other stations are within reach of at least one of the selected stations. We improve the running time for obtaining a $(1+ε)$-approximate solution for this problem from $n^{((α/ε)^{O(d)})}$ as reported by Bilo et al. (\cite{Bilo}) to $O(n+ {(\frac{k^{2d+1}}{ε^d})}^{\min{\{2k, (α/ε)^{O(d)} \}}})$ that is, we obtain a running time that is \emph{linear} in the network size. Further results include a constant approximation algorithm for the TSP problem under squared (non-metric!) edge costs, which can be employed to implement a novel data aggregation protocol, as well as efficient schemes to perform $k$-hop multicasts.

cs.CG↗
arXiv2006

On the connectivity of the Poisson process on fractals

For a measure mu supported on a compact connected subset of a Euclidean space which satisfies a uniform d-dimensional decay of the volume of balls we show that the maximal edge in the minimum spanning tree of n indepndent samples from mu is, with high probability (log n/n)^(1/d).

math.PR↗