Research report 2008 - Max Planck Institute for Informatics
Randomized phone chains
Authors
Doerr, Benjamin
Departments
Algorithmen und Komplexität (Prof. Dr. Dr.-Ing. E.h. Kurt Mehlhorn)
MPI für Informatik, Saarbrücken
Summary
A phone chain (or phone cascade) is a way of distributing information to all members of a group. Similar problems are subject of research in computer science. It turns out that very good solutions are obtained from phone chains that use randomness. Finding the right dose of randomness is currently a hot topic.