METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING WHETHER A NODE CAN REPRESENT OR BE REPRESENTED BY OTHER NODES WITHIN A NETWORK

摘要

A distributed method for determining whether a node can represent or be represented by other nodes within a network comprises receiving at a node (v_n), respective sets of observations (k_l) for each neighbour node (N(v_n)) of the node across respective links ({v_n,v_k})) within the network. For each link, a measure (D_n,k) of dis-similarly between the observations for a neighbour node (k_l) and the corresponding observations (n_l) for the node is determined. Respective inequality measures (E_k) for each neighbour node (N(v_n)) of the node are determined, each inequality measure being a function of respective dissimilarity measures (D_n,k) and weights (p_n,k) for each link between a neighbour node (v_k) and its neighbour nodes. For each link ({v_n,v_k}) between the node and a respective neighbour node, a weight (p_n,k) is updated as a function of the dissimilarity measure (D_n,k) and a previous weight for the link. For each link between the node and a respective neighbour node, the node determines as a function of an inequality measure for the node (E_n) and the determined inequality measure for the neighbour node (E_k) whether a link between the node and the neighbour node should be maintained. The node then determines, based on the links maintained by the node, if the node can represent neighbour nodes within the network.