A new competitive algorithm for group testing

Author

Bar-Noy, Amotz ; Hwang, F.K. ; Kessler, Ilan ; Kutten, Shay

Author_Institution

IBM Thomas J. Watson Res. Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, USA

fYear

1992

fDate

4-8 May 1992

Firstpage

786

Abstract

Algorithms for the group testing problem when there is no a priori information on the number of defective items are considered. The efficiency criterion used in the competitive ratio, which is the ratio of the number of tests required by an algorithm when there is no a priori information on the number of defective items, to the number of tests required by an optimal algorithm when the number of defective items is known in advance. A new algorithm is presented, and it is shown that the competitive ratio of this algorithm is 2. This result is an improvement over an algorithm given by D.Z. Du et al. (1991), for which the competitive ratio was 2.75. It also proves a conjecture made by them. A new application of group testing techniques for high-speed networks is discussed

Keywords

algorithm theory; automatic testing; group theory; telecommunication networks; competitive ratio; defective items; efficiency criterion; group testing; high-speed networks; optimal algorithm; Algorithm design and analysis; High-speed networks; Performance analysis; Performance evaluation; Stochastic processes; Testing; Upper bound;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

INFOCOM '92. Eleventh Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies, IEEE

Conference_Location

Florence

Print_ISBN

0-7803-0602-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/INFCOM.1992.263516

Filename

263516