From Hallʹs Matching Theorem to Optimal Routing on Hypercubes

We introduce a concept of so-called disjoint ordering for any collection of finite sets. It can be viewed as a generalization of a system of distinctive representatives for the sets. It is shown that disjoint ordering is useful for network routing. More precisely, we show that Hallʹs “marriage” condition for a collection of finite sets guarantees the existence of a disjoint ordering for the sets. We next use this result to solve a problem in optimal routing on hypercubes. We give a necessary and sufficient condition under which there are internally node-disjoint paths each shortest from a source node to any others(s⩽n) target nodes on ann-dimensional hypercube. When this condition is not necessarily met, we show that there are always internally node-disjoint paths each being either shortest or near shortest, and the total length is minimum. An efficient algorithm is also given for constructing disjoint orderings and thus disjoint short paths. As a consequence, Rabinʹs information disposal algorithm may be improved.