On a new class of codes for identifying vertices in graphs

We investigate a new class of codes for the optimal covering of vertices in an undirected graph G such that any vertex in G can be uniquely identified by examining the vertices that cover it. We define a ball of radius t centered on a vertex υ to be the set of vertices in G that are at distance at most t from υ. The vertex υ is then said to cover itself and every other vertex in the ball with center υ. Our formal problem statement is as follows: given an undirected graph G and an integer t⩾1, find a (minimal) set C of vertices such that every vertex in G belongs to a unique set of balls of radius t centered at the vertices in C. The set of vertices thus obtained constitutes a code for vertex identification. We first develop topology-independent bounds on the size of C. We then develop methods for constructing C for several specific topologies such as binary cubes, nonbinary cubes, and trees. We also describe the identification of sets of vertices using covering codes that uniquely identify single vertices. We develop methods for constructing optimal topologies that yield identifying codes with a minimum number of codewords. Finally, we describe an application of the theory developed in this paper to fault diagnosis of multiprocessor systems