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SUMMARY:Finding our way around routing algebras - Matthew Daggitt
DTSTART:20160226T110000Z
DTEND:20160226T120000Z
UID:TALK64867@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ian Orton
DESCRIPTION:Despite playing a crucial role in almost every part of modern 
 technology\, we still do not fully understand the behaviour of routing alg
 orithms and protocols. Typically the difficult questions are avoided at un
 dergraduate level by teaching routing algorithms in the world of semirings
  which\, while having nice properties\, don't possess the required express
 ibility for useful real world protocols.\n\nIn this talk I'll outline how 
 any routing problem can be viewed from an algebraic perspective and show h
 ow this allows us to better reason about their behaviour. In particular I'
 ll cover the difficulties of moving from distributive algebras\, where eve
 ryone in the network agrees on the best paths\, to non-distributive algebr
 as\, where people disagree over which paths should be taken. Finally I'll 
 provide a high-level overview of my new\, more general proof for the conve
 rgence of certain classes of non-distributive algebras.\n\nCovering:\n\n* 
 A recap of the Bellman-Ford algorithm (with distributed variants)\n* Its b
 ehaviour in an idealised world of distributive algebras\n* Why distributiv
 e algebras tend not to be used in practice\n* The convergence properties w
 e can salvage from non-distributive algebras\n\nPrerequisites:\n\n* Not mu
 ch. Basic familiarity with the Bellman-Ford/Dijkstra routing algorithms wo
 uld be a plus\, but not necessary!\n
LOCATION:Rainbow Room (FS07)\, Computer Laboratory
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