Distributed Lance-William Clustering Algorithm

Abstract

One important tool is the optimal clustering of data into useful categories. Dividing similar objects into a smaller number of clusters is of importance in many applications. These include search engines, monitoring of academic performance, biology and wireless networks. We first discuss a number of clustering methods. We present a parallel algorithm for the efficient clustering of objects into groups based on their similarity to each other. The input consists of an n by n distance matrix. This matrix would have a distance ranking for each pair of objects. The smaller the number, the more similar the two objects are to each other. We utilize parallel processors to calculate a hierarchal cluster of these n items based on this matrix. Another advantage of our method is distribution of the large n by n matrix. We have implemented our algorithm and have found it to be scalable both in terms of processing speed and storage.