Parallel Labeling of Three-Dimensional Clusters on Networks of Workstations

Cluster algorithms have application in diverse areas, including statistical mechanics of polymer solutions, spin models in physics, and the study of ecological systems. Most parallel cluster labeling algorithms are designed for SIMD and MIMD multiprocessors and based on relaxation methods. We present a parallel 3-D cluster labeling algorithm based on mapping tables, for distributed memory environments. The proposed algorithm focuses on minimizing interprocess communication to enhance execution performance on workstation networks. We implemented the algorithm with the aid of theEcliPSeparallel replication toolkit, exploiting special tree-combining and data reduction features of the system. We report on performance results for experiments conducted on workstation clusters.