Testing Equality in Communication Graphs

Let G = (V, E) be a connected undirected graph with k vertices. Suppose that on each vertex of the graph there is a player having an n-bit string. Each player is allowed to communicate with its neighbors according to a (static) agreed communication protocol, and the players must decide, deterministically, if their inputs are all equal. What is the minimum possible total number of bits transmitted in a protocol solving this problem ? We determine this minimum up to a lower order additive term in many cases. In particular, we show that it is kn/2 + o(n) for any Hamiltonian k-vertex graph, and that for any 2-edge connected graph with m edges containing no two adjacent vertices of degree exceeding 2 it is mn/2 + o(n). The proofs combine graph theoretic ideas with tools from additive number theory.