Towards power-sensitive communication on a multiple-access channel

Gianluca De Marco, Dariusz R. Kowalski

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

We are given n stations of which k are active, while the remaining n - k are asleep. The active stations communicate via a multiple-access channel. If a subset Q of active stations transmits in the same round, all active stations can recognize from the signal strength how many stations have transmitted (i.e., they learn the size of set Q), even though they may not be able to decode the contents of transmitted messages. The goal is to let each active station to learn about the set of all active stations. It is well known that Θ(k logk+1 n) rounds are enough, even for non-adaptive deterministic algorithms. A natural interesting generalization arises when we are required to identify a subset of m ≤ k active stations. We show that while for randomized or for adaptive deterministic algorithms O(m logm+1 n) rounds are sufficient, the non-adaptive deterministic counterpart still requires Θ(k logk+1 n) rounds; therefore, finding any subset of active stations is not easier than finding all of them by a nonadaptive deterministic algorithm. We prove our results in the more general framework of combinatorial search theory, where the problem of identifying active stations on a multiple-access channel can be viewed as a variant of the well-known counterfeit coin problem.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationICDCS 2010 - 2010 International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems
Pages728-735
Number of pages8
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010
Externally publishedYes
Event30th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, ICDCS 2010 - Genova, Italy
Duration: Jun 21 2010Jun 25 2010

Publication series

NameProceedings - International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems

Conference

Conference30th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, ICDCS 2010
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityGenova
Period6/21/106/25/10

Keywords

  • Combinatorial search theory
  • Distributed learning
  • Multiple-access channel
  • Randomized algorithms

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Computer Networks and Communications

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