Broadcast-efficient protocols for mobile radio networks

The main contribution of this work is to present elegant broadcast-efficient protocols for permutation routing, ranking, and sorting on single-hop Mobile Radio Networks with p stations and k radio channels, denoted by MRN(p,k). Clearly, any protocol performing these tasks on n items must perform ⁿ/_k broadcast rounds because each item must be broadcast at least once. We begin by presenting an optimal off-line permutation routing protocol using ⁿ /_k broadcast rounds for arbitrary k, p, and n. Further, we show that optimal on-line routing can be performed in ⁿ/ _k broadcast rounds, provided that either k=1 or p=n. We then go on to develop an online routing protocol that takes 2ⁿ/ _k+k-1 broadcast rounds on the MRN(p,k), whenever k⩽√^p/₂. Using these routing protocols as basic building blocks, we develop a ranking protocol that takes 2ⁿ /_k+o(ⁿ/_k) broadcast rounds as well as a sorting protocol that takes 3ⁿ/_k+o(ⁿ/_k) broadcast rounds, provided that k ε o(√n) and p=n. Finally, we develop a ranking protocol that takes 3ⁿ/_k+o(ⁿ/ _k) broadcast rounds, as well as a sorting protocol that takes 4ⁿ/_k+o(ⁿ/_k) broadcast rounds on the MRN(p,k), provided that k⩽√^p/₂ and p ε o(n). Featuring very low proportionality constants, our protocols offer a vast improvement over the state of the art