Distance-k Information in Self-stabilizing Algorithms

Many graph problems seem to require knowledge that extends beyond the immediate neighbors of a node. The usual self-stabilizing model only allows for nodes to make decisions based on the states of their immediate neighbors. We provide a general polynomial transformation for constructing self-stabilizing algorithms which utilize distance-shape k knowledge, with a slowdown of nO(log k). Our main application is a polynomial-time self-stabilizing algorithm for finding maximal irredundant sets, a problem which seems to require distance-4 information. We also show how to find maximal k-packings in polynomial-time. Our techniques extend results in a recent paper by Gairing et al. for achieving distance-two information.