Vertex separators for partitioning a graph

Abstract

Finite Element Method (FEM) is a well known technique extensively studied for spatial and temporal modeling of environmental processes, weather prediction computations, and intelligent signal processing for wireless sensors. The need for huge computational power arising in such applications to simulate physical phenomenon correctly mandates the use of massively parallel computers to distribute the workload evenly. In this study, a novel heuristic algorithm called Line Graph Bisection which partitions a graph via vertex separators so as to balance the workload amongst the processors and to minimize the communication overhead is proposed. The proposed algorithm is proved to be computationally feasible and makes cost-effective parallel implementations possible to speed up the solution process.