In this paper, we study the problem of compact routing schemes in weighted undirected and directed graphs. For weighted undirected graphs, more than a decade ago, Chechik [PODC'13] presented a ≈ 3.68k-stretch compact routing scheme that uses Õ(n^{1/k}log{D}) local storage, where D is the normalized diameter, for every k > 1. We present a ≈ 2.64k-stretch compact routing scheme that uses Õ(n^{1/k}) local storage on average in each vertex. This is the first compact routing scheme that uses total local storage of Õ(n^{1+1/k}) while achieving a c ⋅ k stretch, for a constant c < 3. In real-world network protocols, messages are usually transmitted as part of a communication session between two parties. Therefore, more than two decades ago, Thorup and Zwick [SPAA'01] considered compact routing schemes that establish a communication session using a handshake. In their handshake-based compact routing scheme, the handshake is routed along a (4k-5)-stretch path, and the rest of the communication session is routed along an optimal (2k-1)-stretch path. It is straightforward to improve the (4k-5)-stretch of the handshake to ≈ 3.68k-stretch using the compact routing scheme of Chechik [PODC'13]. We improve the handshake stretch to the optimal (2k-1), by borrowing the concept of roundtrip routing from directed graphs to undirected graphs. For weighted directed graphs, more than two decades ago, Roditty, Thorup, and Zwick [SODA'02 and TALG'08] presented a (4k+ε)-stretch compact roundtrip routing scheme that uses Õ(n^{1/k}) local storage for every k ≥ 3. For k = 3, this gives a (12+ε)-roundtrip stretch using Õ(n^{1/3}) local storage. We improve the stretch by developing a 7-roundtrip stretch routing scheme with Õ(n^{1/3}) local storage. In addition, we consider graphs with bounded hop diameter and present an optimal (2k-1)-roundtrip stretch routing scheme that uses Õ(D_{HOP}⋅ n^{1/k}), where D_{HOP} is the hop diameter of the graph.
@InProceedings{kadria_et_al:LIPIcs.DISC.2025.38, author = {Kadria, Avi and Roditty, Liam}, title = {{Compact Routing Schemes in Undirected and Directed Graphs}}, booktitle = {39th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2025)}, pages = {38:1--38:19}, series = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)}, ISBN = {978-3-95977-402-4}, ISSN = {1868-8969}, year = {2025}, volume = {356}, editor = {Kowalski, Dariusz R.}, publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik}, address = {Dagstuhl, Germany}, URL = {https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2025.38}, URN = {urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-248555}, doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2025.38}, annote = {Keywords: Routing schemes, Compact routing schemes, Distance oracles, Computer networks, Graph algorithms} }