Exact ordered binary decision diagram size when representing classes of symmetric functions

Abstract

An ordered binary decision diagram (OBDD) is a canonical, graphical representation of a switching function. The space complexity of this representation as well as the time complexity for manipulating functions in this form is determained by the number of vertices in the OBDD. Symmetric functions are a class of functions which include the basic Boolean gates such as NOT, AND, NAND, NOR, XOR, etc., as well as less basic functions, such as voter logic for redundant circuit implementations. Symmetric functions exploit the most powerful properties of OBDDs to a very great extent. OBDDs have been shown to have size of O(n2), where n is the number of switching variables. However, this says little of the actual performance of OBDDs in practice. Exact equations of OBDD size are derived for the common classes of symmetric functions, as well as an exact equation for the largest OBDD that can exist for any arbitrary symmetric function. It is shown that OBDDs are Ω(n 2) for the majority of functions from each common class of symmetric functions beyond the simplest Boolean gates. Since most functions can be expected to be more complex to represent than symmetric functions, this result has profound implications to the straightforward application of OBDDs to large functional problems.