Scalable and Efficient Graph Colouring in 3 Dimensions Using Emergence Engineering Principles

• Authors: Richard Anthony
• Venue: SASO '08 Proceedings of the 2008 Second IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems
• Year: 2008

This paper describes ways in which emergence engineering principles can be applied to the development of distributed applications. A distributed solution to the graph-coloring problem is used as a vehicle to illustrate some novel techniques. Each node acts autonomously to color itself based only on its local view of its neighborhood, and following a simple set of carefully tuned rules. Randomness breaks symmetry and thus enhances stability. The algorithm has been developed to enable self-configuration in wireless sensor networks, and to reflect real-world configurations the algorithm operates with 3 dimensional topologies (reflecting the propagation of radio waves and the placement of sensors in buildings, bridge structures etc.). The algorithm’s performance is evaluated and results presented. It is shown to be simultaneously highly stable and scalable whilst achieving low convergence times. The use of eavesdropping gives rise to low interaction complexity and high efficiency in terms of the communication overheads.