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SUMMARY:An Application of Mixing Times to Fibreoptic Networks - Sam Thomas
  (University of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20181017T150000Z
DTEND:20181017T160000Z
UID:TALK112906@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:65944
DESCRIPTION:First and foremost\, I promise a (reasonably) light talk\, wit
 h limit equations and multiple (multicoloured!) pictures -- sharks may eve
 n feature\, if we have time!\n\nIn this talk\, I shall discuss challenges 
 in 'routing schemes' for fibreoptic networks\, and suggest a possible sche
 me. In essence\, one (eg BT or Virgin Media) has a network of cables conne
 cting cities\, and wishes to send data down these cables\; however\, one c
 annot send two signals of the same type down the same cable\, as they then
  interfere. I shall formulate this precisely\, and it turns out that findi
 ng a (suitable) routing scheme is an NP-hard problem.\n\nUsing randomness 
 (Markov chains)\, I shall show how one can find a suitable solution... pro
 vided one's definition of "suitable" is\, well... suitable. These types of
  systems are actually used in the real world*.\n\n*For those who\, like me
 \, do pure maths\, I shall explain this (likely previously unknown) notion
  of the 'real world'
LOCATION:MR14\, Centre for Mathematical Sciences
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