Pseudo-scheduling: A New Approach to the Broadcast Scheduling Problem

TL;DR

This paper introduces pseudo-scheduling, a relaxed graph coloring method for broadcast scheduling in multihop networks, enabling efficient communication with fewer colors than traditional methods.

Contribution

It proposes pseudo-scheduling as a new approach and provides algorithms for both centralized and decentralized computation with linear color complexity.

Findings

Pseudo-scheduling reduces the number of colors needed compared to strict distance-2 coloring.

Algorithms for pseudo-scheduling are proven to be effective in both centralized and decentralized settings.

The approach simplifies broadcast scheduling in multihop networks.

Abstract

The broadcast scheduling problem asks how a multihop network of broadcast transceivers operating on a shared medium may share the medium in such a way that communication over the entire network is possible. This can be naturally modeled as a graph coloring problem via distance-2 coloring (L(1,1)-labeling, strict scheduling). This coloring is difficult to compute and may require a number of colors quadratic in the graph degree. This paper introduces pseudo-scheduling, a relaxation of distance-2 coloring. Centralized and decentralized algorithms that compute pseudo-schedules with colors linear in the graph degree are given and proved.