Wireless Broadcast with Short Labels

In this paper, we study the broadcast problem in wireless networks when the broadcast is helped by a labelling scheme. We focus on two variants of broadcast: broadcast without acknowledgment (i.e. the initiator of the broadcast is not notified at the end of broadcast) and broadcast with acknowledgment. Our contribution is threefold. First, we improve in terms of memory complexity a recent [12] labelling-based broadcast scheme with acknowledgment designed for arbitrary networks. Second, we propose label optimal broadcast algorithms in level separable networks (a class of networks issued from recent studies in Wireless Body Area Networks). In this class of networks we propose an acknowledgment-free broadcast strategy using 1-bit labels and broadcast with acknowledgment using 2-bits labels. In the class of level-separable networks, our algorithms finish within 2D rounds, where D is the eccentricity of the broadcast initiator. Interestingly, the time complexity of broadcast in the case of level-separable networks does not depend on the size of the network but rather on the initiator eccentricity which makes this class of graphs interesting for further investigation. Finally, we study the hardness of determining that a graph is level separable. Our study shows that even though checking that a separation is a level separation can be done in polynomial time, determining that a graph has the level separable property is NP-complete. This result opens interesting independent research directions.