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Interpretation of Sandpile Simulation as Information Dissemination Algorithms

As usual in sandpile or chip firing games some number of things is assigned to a cell. In this case there are two entities to track. Each cell initially has associated with it a message which need to be distributed to as many other cells as possible under certain constraints. Additionally, each cell also has associated with it an integer value analagous to the amount of sand on the cell. In this case the grains or chips may be thought of as message permissions. When a cell has threshold permissions, it may send all of its messages to each of its four neighbors. Accompanying each message is the permission which allowed its transmission. So as a cell receives messages it may accumulate enough permissions to now send the information that it holds to each of its neighbors. An example sandpile gossiping simulation is shown in the figure below.

Sorry can't show the picture now;



Angela Kerns
Thu Dec 5 15:22:37 EST 1996