An Analysis of the Factors Influencing the Strong Chromatic Index of Graphs Derived by Inflating a Few Common Classes of Graphs

Abstract

The problem of strong edge coloring discusses assigning colors to the edges of a graph such that distinct colors are assigned to any two edges which are either adjacent to each other or are adjacent to a common edge. The least number of colors required to define a strong edge coloring of a graph is called its strong chromatic index. This problem is equivalent to the problem of assigning collision-free frequencies to the links between the elements of a wireless sensor network. In this article, we discuss a novel way of generating new graphs from existing graphs. This graph construction is known as inflating a graph. We discuss the strong chromatic index of graphs generated by inflating some common classes of graphs and graphs derived from them. In particular, we consider the cycle graph, which is symmetric in nature, and graphs such as the path graph and the star graph, which are not symmetric. Further, we analyze the factors which influence the strong chromatic index of these inflated graphs.