Location of central nodes in time varying computer networks

Some computer and communication networks require the assignment of certain nodes to perform special, network wide functions such as routing, monitoring, etc. The natural question that arises is which is the best network node to perform the function. This is the essence of the location problem. Research in network location problems concentrated on static environments, whereas many problems, in particular those related to computer networks, are dynamic in nature. In this work the authors consider the single facility dynamic-network location problem in a continuous domain of time. They first formulate the problem, make some general observations, and then solve it for a discrete time domain. Having become acquainted with the specificities of the problem the authors then offer a solution to the continuous time domain. Finally, a distributed version of the algorithm is outlined and discussed.