Decontamination of hypercubes by mobile agents

In this paper we consider the decontamination problem in a hypercube network of size n. The nodes of the network are assumed to be contaminated and they have to be decontaminated by a sufficient number of agents. An agent is a mobile entity that asynchronously moves along the network links and decontaminates all the nodes it touches. A decontaminated node that is not occupied by an agent is re-contaminated if it has a contaminated neighbour. We consider some variations of the model based on the capabilities of mobile agents: locality, where the agents can only access local information; visibility, where they can "see" the state of their neighbours; and cloning, where they can create copies of themselves. We also consider synchronicity as an alternative system requirement. For each model, we design a decontamination strategy and we make several observations. For agents with locality, our strategy is based on the use of a coordinator that leads the other agents. Our strategy r...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: NETWORKS
• Authors: Paola Flocchini, Miao Jun Huang, Flaminia L. Luccio
• Keywords: Computer Networks, Decontamination Problem, Hypercube Network, NETWORKS 2008, Sufficient Number