Frog Calls Inspire a New Algorithm for Wireless Networks

 
Male Japanese tree frogs use a method of calling that allows them to use their calls at the same time but in a way that allows the females to distinguish between them. (I’m sure you knew that, right?)

Now, researchers from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia have mimicked this form of calling behavior in the creation of an algorithm that assigns colours to network nodes, the use of which can be applied to developing more efficient wireless networks.

This new research draws on the ‘natural self-organization’ of competing male Japanese tree frogs. The males practice a form of ‘desynchronization’ that makes calls distinct from the calls of other males, without any central authority organizing this.

The researchers created “a new algorithm for assigning colours to network nodes ensuring that each pair of connected nodes is not the same colour. The end goal is to generate a valid solution that uses the least amount of colours.”

This study falls under the growing field of ‘swarm intelligence’, a form of artificial intelligence based on multiple ‘agents’, similar to the collective intelligence seen in groups of birds, ants, frogs, fish, etc.

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