An efficient distributed protocol for finding shortest paths in networks with negative weights

The design is discussed of distributed algorithms for the single-source shortest-path problem to run on an asynchronous directed network in which some of the edges may be associated with negative weights, and thus in which a cycle of negative total weight may also exist. The only existing solution in the literature for this problem is due to K.M. Chandy and J. Misra (1982), and it has, in the worst case, an unbounded message complexity. A synchronous version of the Chandy-Misra algorithm is described and studied, and it is proved that for a network with m edges and n nodes, the worst case message and time complexities of this algorithm are O(mn ) and O(n), respectively. This algorithm is then combined with an efficient synchronizer to yield an asynchronous protocol that retains the same message and time complexities