Deterministic algorithm for the cooperative data exchange problem

In this paper we study the problem of data exchange, where each node in the system has a number of linear combinations of the data packets. Communicating over a public channel, the goal is for all nodes to reconstruct the entire set of the data packets in minimal total number of bits exchanged over the channel. We present a novel divide and conquer based architecture that determines the number of bits each node should transmit. This along with the well known fact, that it is sufficient for the nodes to broadcast linear combinations of their local information, provides a polynomial time deterministic algorithm for reconstructing the entire set of the data packets at all nodes in minimal amount of total communication.