Impacts of Network Topology on the Performance of a Distributed Algorithm Solving Linear Equations

Abstract

Recently a distributed algorithm has been proposed for multi-agent networks to solve a system of linear algebraic equations, by assuming each agent only knows part of the system and is able to communicate with nearest neighbors to update their local solutions. This paper investigates how the network topology impacts exponential convergence of the proposed algorithm. It is found that networks with higher mean degree, smaller diameter, and homogeneous degree distribution tend to achieve faster convergence. Both analytical and numerical results are provided.