Agent-based randomized broadcasting in large networks

Mobile agents are software abstractions that can migrate across the links of a network. They naturally extend the object oriented program style and nicely correspond to agents as examined in game theory. In this paper, we introduce a simple, robust, and efficient randomized broadcast protocol within this mobile agent programming paradigm. We show that by using this scheme, broadcasting enquiries in a random graph of certain density O(lnn)O(lnn) steps, where nn denotes the number of nodes in the graph. Then, we consider bounded degree graphs and prove that we are able to distribute an information among all nodes in O(D)O(D) steps, where DD denotes the diameter of the graph. We also show that, in contrast to traditional randomized broadcasting (TRB), graphs exist in which agent-based randomized broadcasting requires Ω(n2)Ω(n2) steps. On the other hand, some graphs which require Ω(nlnn)Ω(nlnn) steps to spread the information in the traditional broadcast model, allow very fast agent-based broadcasting. It should be noted that the previously mentioned results are guaranteed with probability 1-o(1/n)1-o(1/n).