Optimal online communication

An optimisation problem describes a situation in which an optimal solution is sought from among all possible solutions. Mathematicians study an optimisation problem to find a general method for solving such a problem; such a method is called an algorithm.

Korteweg has developed algorithms for wireless networks. An important problem in online networks is the communication of data to a central point in the network. The quality of the solution depends on several criteria, such as the energy cost for communication and the time needed to collect data.

Korteweg studied subsidiary aspects such as minimising the maximum communication costs, minimising the time needed to collect all data and minimising the processing time of messages.

Important results are the insight into the effect that faster communication resources can have on the quality of the algorithm, and an algorithm that ensures that both the communication costs and the message delays deviate as little as possible from of the best offline solution.

The research was carried out at Eindhoven University of Technology, and funded by a grant from the Free Competition (previously: Open Competition) of NWO Physical Sciences: www.nwo.nl/oc.