Lecture 19

Broadcast routing

Eytan Modiano

Eytan Modiano
Slide 1
 Broadcast Routing

• Route a packet from a source to all nodes in the network

• Possible solutions:

– Flooding: Each node sends packet on all outgoing links

Discard packets received a second time

– Spanning Tree Routing: Send packet along a tree that includes all of
the nodes in the network

Eytan Modiano
Slide 2
 Graphs

• A graph G = (N,A) is a finite nonempty set of nodes and a set of

node pairs A called arcs (or links or edges)

2
2

1 3

1 3

4
N = {1,2,3}
N = {1,2,3,4}
A = {(1,2)}

A = {(1,2),(2,3),(1,4),(2,4)}

Eytan Modiano
Slide 3
 Walks and paths

• A walk is a sequence of nodes (n1, n2, ...,nk) in which each adjacent node
pair is an arc.

• A path is a walk with no repeated nodes.

2 2

1 4 1 4

3 3

Walk (1,2,3,4,2) Path (1,2,3,4)

Eytan Modiano
Slide 4
 Cycles

• A cycle is a walk (n1, n2,...,nk) with n1 = nk, k>3, and with no

repeated nodes except n1 = nk

2
Cycle (1,2,4,3,1)
1 4

Eytan Modiano
Slide 5
 Connected graph

• A graph is connected if a path exists between each pair of nodes.

2 2

1 1
4 3

Connected Unconnected

• An unconnected graph can be separated into two or more connected

components.

Eytan Modiano
Slide 6
 Acyclic graphs and trees

• An acyclic graph is a graph with no cycles.

• A tree is an acyclic connected graph.

2 2 2

1 4 1 3 1 3
3

Acyclic, unconnected Cyclic,

connected not tree not tree

• The number of arcs in a tree is always one less than the number of nodes

– Proof: start with arbitrary node and each time you add an arc you add a node
=> N nodes and N-1 links. If you add an arc without adding a node, the arc
must go to a node already in the tree and hence form a cycle

Eytan Modiano
Slide 7
 Subgraphs

• G' = (N',A') is a subgraph of G = (N,A) if

– 1) G' is a graph
– 2) N' is a subset of N
– 3) A' is a subset of A

• One obtains a subgraph by deleting nodes and arcs from a graph

– Note: arcs adjacent to a deleted node must also be deleted

2 2

1 4 1 3
3

– Graph G Subgraph G' of G

Eytan Modiano
Slide 8
 Spanning trees

• T = (N',A') is a spanning tree of G = (N,A) if

– T is a subgraph of G with N' = N and T is a tree

2 2
5 5

1 4 1 4
3 3

Graph G Spanning tree of G

Eytan Modiano
Slide 9
 Spanning trees

• Spanning trees are useful for disseminating and collecting control

information in networks; they are sometimes useful for routing

• To disseminate data from Node n:

– Node n broadcasts data on all adjacent tree arcs
– Other nodes relay data on other adjacent tree arcs

• To collect data at node n:

– All leaves of tree (other than n) send data
– Other nodes (other than n) wait to receive data on all but one adjacent
arc, and then send received plus local data on remaining arc

Eytan Modiano
Slide 10
 General construction of a spanning tree

• Algorithm to construct a spanning tree for a connected graph G = (N,A):

1) Select any node n in N; N' = {n}; A' = { }

2) If N' = N, then stop (T=(N',A') is a spanning tree)

3) Choose (i,j) ∈ A, i ∈ N', j ∉N'

N' := N'∪{j}; A' := A'∪{(i,j)}; go to step 2

• Connectedness of G assures that an arc can be chosen in step 3 as long as N’ ≠ N

• Is spanning tree unique?

Eytan Modiano
Slide 11
 Spanning tree algorithm

• The algorithm never forms a cycle, since each new arc goes to a
new node.

• T = (N',A') is a tree at each step of the algorithm since T is always

connected, and each time we add an arc we also add a node

• Theorem: If G is a connected graph of n nodes, then

1) G contains at least n-1 arcs

2) G contains a spanning tree
3) if G contains exactly n-1 arcs, G is a spanning tree

Eytan Modiano
Slide 12
 Distributed algorithms to find spanning trees

1) A fixed node sends a "start" message on each adjacent arc of the graph

2) Each other node marks the first arc on which a start message was received
as a spanning tree arc and then sends a "start" message on each other arc

– This is a distributed implementation of the general spanning tree algorithm

– It has several problems shared by many such algorithms:

a) who chooses the starting node?

b) When does the algorithm terminate?
c) The resulting tree is somewhat random

Eytan Modiano
Slide 13
 Min weight spanning tree

• Given a graph with weights assigned to each arc, find a spanning tree of
minimum total weight (MST)

• Define a "fragment" to be a subtree of a MST

• Theorem:
– Given a fragment F of an MST, Let a(i,j) be a minimum weight outgoing arc from
F, where j is not in F.

– Then, F extended by arc a(i,j) & node j is a fragment.

• Proof:
– Let M be the MST that does not include a(i,j).

– Since a(i,j) is not part of M, then adding a(i,j) to M must cause a cycle. There
must be some link in the cycle b ≠ a which is outgoing from F.
– Deleting b and adding a creates a new spanning tree. Since weight of b cannot
be less then weight of a , M' must be a MST.
If weight of a = weight of b, then both are MST’s otherwise M could not have been an
MST

Eytan Modiano
Slide 14
 MST algorithms

• Generic MST algorithm steps:

– Given a collection of subtrees of an MST (called fragments) add a
minimum weight outgoing edge to some fragment

• Prim-Dijkstra: Start with an arbitrary single node as a fragment

– Add minimum weight outgoing edge

• Kruskal: Start with each node as a fragment;

– Add the minimum weight outgoing edge, minimized over all
fragments

Eytan Modiano
Slide 15
 Prim-Dijkstra Algorithm

2
8 2
1 5 7
4 1 1
3 9
Step 1 Step �2

2 2 2
8 8
1 1 1 7
3 3 3
Step 3 Step 4 Step 5

Eytan Modiano

Slide 16

 Kruskal Algorithm

Min weight outgoing edge

from fragment

2 MST
8
1 4 5 7
3 9

Fragment

• Suppose the arcs of weight 1 and 3 are a fragment

– Consider any spanning tree using those arcs and the arc of weight 4,
say, which is an outgoing arc from the fragment.

– Suppose that spanning tree does not use the arc of weight 2.

– Removing the arc of weight 4 and adding the arc of weight 2 yields
another tree of smaller weight.

– Thus an outgoing arc of min weight from fragment must be in MST.

Eytan Modiano
Slide 17