Algorithm

World Wide Web

Wireless sensor network

Engineering

Node (physics)

Graph theory

Theoretical computer science

Distributed algorithm

Degree (music)

Computer science

Acoustics

Complex network

Distributed computing

Computer network

Physics

Graph

Mathematics

Combinatorics

Structural engineering

Degree distribution

Consensus algorithm

A distributed consensus algorithm for estimating the degree distribution of a graph is proposed. The proposed algorithm is based on average consensus and in-network empirical mass function estimation. It is fully distributed in the sense that each node in the network only needs to know its own degree, and nodes do not need to be labeled. The algorithm works for any connected graph structure in the presence of communication noise. The performance of the algorithm is analyzed. A discussion on how the properties of the graph degree distribution can be exploited for post-processing after consensus is reached is given. Simulation results corroborating the theory are also provided.

Distributed Estimation of the Degree Distribution in Wireless Sensor Networks