Controlled Flooding Search with Delay Constraints

— In this paper we consider the problem of query and search in a network, e.g., searching for a specific node or a piece of data. We limit our attention to the class of TTL (time-to-live) based controlled flooding search strategies where query/search packets are broadcast and relayed in the network until a preset TTL value carried in the packet expires. Every unsuccessful search attempt results in an increased TTL value (i.e., larger search area) and the same process is repeated. Every search attempt also incurs a cost (in terms of packet transmissions and receptions) and a delay (time till timeout or till the target is found). The primary goal is to derive search strategies (i.e., sequences of TTL values) that minimize a worstcase cost measure subject to a worst-case delay constraint. We present a constrained optimization framework and derive a class of optimal strategies, shown to be randomized strategies, and obtain their performance as a function of the delay constraint. We als...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: INFOCOM
• Authors: Nicholas B. Chang, Mingyan Liu
• Keywords: Communications, INFOCOM 2006, Search Attempt, Search Strategies, Ttl Values