Search

Rapporteur non membre du jury : Evangelos Kranakis; This manuscript presents a significant part of my research results in the past years, in the field of distributed computing in networks. The document is structured from the point of view of information available to the computing entities. First, I present my results concerning the advice framework, which allows to study quantitative questions about the a priori information given to the computing entities in order to solve a given problem. I address then the geometric setting, where the computing entities are mobile robots that acquire information about their environment through vision. The third part concerns the exploration of dynamic networks by a mobile entity (called agent in this context), and the impact of knowing the future topological changes. The next part also deals with distributed computing by mobile agents and considers various problems and the different ways of storing information on the network. Finally, the last group of presented results focuses on a particular type of information, the routing one, useful in many contexts to efficiently transfer information in a network.

International audience; We study the problem of finding a destination node t by a mobile agent in an unreliable network having the structure of an unweighted graph, in a model first proposed by Hanusse et al [20, 21]. Each node of the network is able to give advice concerning the next node to visit so as to go closer to the target t. Unfortunately, exactly k of the nodes, called liars, give advice which is incorrect. It is known that for an n-node graph G of maximum degree Δ ≥ 3, reaching a target at a distance of d from the initial location may require an expected time of 2^Ω(min{d,k}), for any d,k = O(log n), even when G is a tree. This paper focuses on strategies which efficiently solve the search problem in scenarios in which, at each node, the agent may only choose between following the local advice, or randomly selecting an incident edge. The strategy which we put forward, called R/A, makes use of a timer (step counter) to alternate between phases of ignoring advice (R) and following advice (A) for a certain number of steps. No knowledge of parameters n, d, or k is required, and the agent need not know by which edge it entered the node of its current location. The performance of this strategy is studied for two classes of regular graphs with extremal values of expansion, namely, for rings and for random Δ-regular graphs (an important class of expanders). For the ring, R/A is shown to achieve an expected searching time of 2d+k^Θ(1) for a worst-case distribution of liars, which is polynomial in both d and k. For random Δ-regular graphs, the expected searching time of the R/A strategy is O(k^3 log^3 n) a.a.s. The polylogarithmic factor with respect to n cannot be dropped from this bound; in fact, we show that a lower time bound of Ω(log n) steps holds for all d,k = Ω(log logn) in random Ω-regular graphs a.a.s. and applies even to strategies which make use of some knowledge of the environment. Finally, we study oblivious strategies which do not use any memory (in particular, with no timer). Such strategies are essentially a form of a random walk, possibly biased by local advice. We show that such biased random walks sometimes achieve drastically worse performance than the R/A strategy. In particular, on the ring, no biased random walk can have a searching time which is polynomial in d and k.

We study the problem of finding a destination node $t$ by a mobile agent in an unreliable network having the structure of an unweighted graph, in a model first proposed by Hanusse {\it et al.}~\cite{HKK00,HKKK08}. Each node of the network is able to give advice concerning the next node to visit so as to go closer to the target $t$. Unfortunately, exactly $k$ of the nodes, called \emph{liars}, give advice which is incorrect. It is known that for an $n$-node graph $G$ of maximum degree $\Delta \geq 3$, reaching a target at a distance of $d$ from the initial location may require an expected time of $2^{\Omega(\min\{d,k\})}$, for any $d,k=O(\log n)$, even when $G$ is a tree. This paper focuses on strategies which efficiently solve the search problem in scenarios in which, at each node, the agent may only choose between following the local advice, or randomly selecting an incident edge. The strategy which we put forward, called \algo{R/A}, makes use of a timer (step counter) to alternate between phases of ignoring advice (\algo{R}) and following advice (\algo{A}) for a certain number of steps. No knowledge of parameters $n$, $d$, or $k$ is required, and the agent need not know by which edge it entered the node of its current location. The performance of this strategy is studied for two classes of regular graphs with extremal values of expansion, namely, for rings and for random $\maxdeg$-regular graphs (an important class of expanders). For the ring, \algo{R/A} is shown to achieve an expected searching time of $2d+k^{\Theta(1)}$ for a worst-case distribution of liars, which is polynomial in both $d$ and $k$. For random $\maxdeg$-regular graphs, the expected searching time of the \algo{R/A} strategy is $O(k^3 \log^3 n)$ a.a.s. The polylogarithmic factor with respect to $n$ cannot be dropped from this bound; in fact, we show that a lower time bound of $\Omega (\log n)$ steps holds for all $d,k=\Omega(\log\log n)$ in random $\maxdeg$-regular graphs a.a.s.\ and applies even to strategies which make use of some knowledge of the environment. Finally, we study oblivious strategies which do not use any memory (in particular, with no timer). Such strategies are essentially a form of a random walk, possibly biased by local advice. We show that such biased random walks sometimes achieve drastically worse performance than the \algo{R/A} strategy. In particular, on the ring, no biased random walk can have a searching time which is polynomial in $d$ and $k$

In order to respond to routing queries, the entities of the network, nammedrouters, require to have a knowledge concerning the topology of the network, thisknowledge is called routing table. The network is modeled by a graph in whichnodes represent routers and edges represent communication links between nodes.This thesis focuses on routing tables computation in a distributed model. In thismodel, computations are done by a set of process placed on nodes. Every processhas for objective to compute the routing table of the node on which he is placed.To perform this computation, processes have to communicate with each other. Inlarge scale network, in the case of a distributed computation, maintaining routingtables up to date can be costly in terms of communication. This thesis focuses mainlyon the problem of communication cost reduction. One of the solution we proposeis to reduce routing tables size which allow to reduce communication cost. In thecentralised model this strategy is well known under the name of compact routing.This thesis presents in particular a distributed compact routing algorithm that allowsto reduce significantly the communication costs in networks like Internet, i.e. theautonomous systems network and others networks that present scale-free properties.This thesis also contains an experimental study of several distributed compact routingalgorithms. Finally, some problems linked to network dynamicity are addressed.More precisely, the problem of network deconnexion during a shortest path treecomputation with auto-stabilisation guaranties, together with a study of the impactof several edges or nodes deletion on the state of the routing tables., Répondre à des requêtes de routage requiert que les entités du réseau, nommées routeurs, aient une connaissance à jour sur la topologie de celui-ci, cette connaissance est appelée table de routage. Le réseau est modélisé par un graphe dans lequel les noeuds représentent les routeurs, et les arêtes les liens de communication entre ceux ci.Cette thèse s’intéresse au calcul des tables de routage dans un modèle distribué.Dans ce modèle, les calculs sont effectués par un ensemble de processus placés sur les noeuds. Chaque processus a pour objectif de calculer la table de routage du noeud sur lequel il se trouve. Pour effectuer ce calcul les processus doivent communiquer entre eux. Dans des réseaux de grande taille, et dans le cadre d’un calcul distribué, le maintien à jour des tables de routage peut être coûteux en terme de communication. L’un des thèmes principaux abordés et celui de la réduction des coûts de communication lors de ce calcul. L’une des solutions apportées consisteà réduire la taille des tables de routage, permettant ainsi de réduire les coûts de communication. Cette stratégie classique dans le modèle centralisé est connue sous le nom de routage compact. Cette thèse présente notamment un algorithme de routage compact distribué permettant de réduire significativement les coûts de communication dans les réseaux tels que le réseau internet, i.e. le réseau des systèmes autonomes ainsi que dans des réseaux sans-échelle. Ce document contient également une étude expérimentale de différents algorithmes de routage compact distribués.Enfin, les problèmes liés à la dynamique du réseau sont également abordés. Plusprécisément le reste de l’étude porte sur un algorithme auto-stabilisant de calcul d’arbre de plus court chemin, ainsi que sur l’impact de la suppression de noeuds ou d’arêtes sur les tables de routage stockées aux routeurs.