9 Search Results for "Hamm, Keaton"

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SEA.2026.8
General Multiplicative Spanners in Practice

Authors: Fritz Bökler, Markus Chimani, and Henning Jasper

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 371, 24th International Symposium on Experimental Algorithms (SEA 2026)

Abstract
Given an undirected graph G with edge weights and lengths, a minimum α-spanner is a least-weight subgraph H ⊆ G that preserves distances w.r.t. the lengths between all node pairs up to a factor of α. Literature often takes the simplifying assumption of a single (coupled) edge function for weights and lengths. For such instances, several exact and non-exact algorithms are known and have been thoroughly evaluated in practice. However, many practical instances have decoupled form, as their weights and lengths are generally independent. Due to the increased complexity, only few (and even fewer practical) algorithms are able to guarantee low-weight solutions. This prompts practitioners to force their naturally decoupled instances into a coupled format, forsaking any quality guarantee. We implement several exact, approximative and heuristic algorithms for decoupled α-spanners, and use algorithm engineering to speed them up in practice. Our hypothesis-driven experiments evaluate their performance w.r.t. solution quality and speed. Generally, many practical instances can indeed be solved exactly within reasonable time, while LP-based approximation algorithms are not worthwhile. We find that standard greedy algorithms often yield acceptable results, but there are also practical instances for which they yield arbitrarily poor solutions. Here, augmented greedy variations offer a good compromise between solution quality and speed.
Cite as

Fritz Bökler, Markus Chimani, and Henning Jasper. General Multiplicative Spanners in Practice. In 24th International Symposium on Experimental Algorithms (SEA 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 371, pp. 8:1-8:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{bokler_et_al:LIPIcs.SEA.2026.8,
  author =	{B\"{o}kler, Fritz and Chimani, Markus and Jasper, Henning},
  title =	{{General Multiplicative Spanners in Practice}},
  booktitle =	{24th International Symposium on Experimental Algorithms (SEA 2026)},
  pages =	{8:1--8:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-422-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{371},
  editor =	{Aum\"{u}ller, Martin and Finocchi, Irene},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SEA.2026.8},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-260120},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SEA.2026.8},
  annote =	{Keywords: Graph spanners, ILP, experimental study, algorithm engineering}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.15
Euclidean Noncrossing Steiner Spanners of Nearly Optimal Sparsity

Authors: Sujoy Bhore, Sándor Kisfaludi‑Bak, Lazar Milenković, Csaba D. Tóth, Karol Węgrzycki, and Sampson Wong

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 367, 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)

Abstract
A Euclidean noncrossing Steiner (1+ε)-spanner for a point set P ⊂ ℝ² is a planar straight-line graph that, for any two points a, b ∈ P, contains a path whose length is at most 1+ε times the Euclidean distance between a and b. We construct a Euclidean noncrossing Steiner (1+ε)-spanner with O(n/ε^{3/2}) edges for any set of n points in the plane. This result improves upon the previous best upper bound of O(n/ε⁴) obtained nearly three decades ago. We also establish an almost matching lower bound: There exist n points in the plane for which any Euclidean noncrossing Steiner (1+ε)-spanner has Ω_μ(n/ε^{3/2-μ}) edges for any μ > 0. Our lower bound uses recent generalizations of the Szemerédi-Trotter theorem to disk-tube incidences in geometric measure theory.
Cite as

Sujoy Bhore, Sándor Kisfaludi‑Bak, Lazar Milenković, Csaba D. Tóth, Karol Węgrzycki, and Sampson Wong. Euclidean Noncrossing Steiner Spanners of Nearly Optimal Sparsity. In 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 367, pp. 15:1-15:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{bhore_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.15,
  author =	{Bhore, Sujoy and Kisfaludi‑Bak, S\'{a}ndor and Milenkovi\'{c}, Lazar and T\'{o}th, Csaba D. and W\k{e}grzycki, Karol and Wong, Sampson},
  title =	{{Euclidean Noncrossing Steiner Spanners of Nearly Optimal Sparsity}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)},
  pages =	{15:1--15:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-418-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{367},
  editor =	{Ahn, Hee-Kap and Hoffmann, Michael and Nayyeri, Amir},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.15},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-258210},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.15},
  annote =	{Keywords: geometric network design, spanners, crossing number, incidences}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.107
New Greedy Spanners and Applications

Authors: Elizaveta Popova and Elad Tzalik

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract
We present a simple greedy procedure to compute an (α,β)-spanner for a graph G. We then show that this procedure is useful for building fault-tolerant spanners, as well as spanners for weighted graphs. Our first main result is an algorithm that, given a multigraph G, outputs an f edge fault-tolerant (k,k-1)-spanner H of size O(fn^{1+1/k}) which is tight. To our knowledge, this is the first tight result concerning the price of fault tolerance in spanners which are not multiplicative, in any model of faults. Our second main result is a new construction of a spanner for weighted graphs. We show that any weighted graph G has a subgraph H with O(n^{1+1/k}) edges such that any path P of hop-length 𝓁 in G has a replacement path P' in H of weighted length ≤ w(P)+(2k-2)w^(1/2)(P) where w(P) is the total edge weight of P, and w^(1/2) denotes the sum of the largest ⌈𝓁/2⌉ edge weights along P. Moreover, we show such approximation is optimal for shortest paths of hop-length 2. To our knowledge, this is the first construction of a "spanner" for weighted graphs that strictly improves upon the stretch of multiplicative (2k-1)-spanners for all non-adjacent vertex pairs, while maintaining the same size bound. Our technique is based on using clustering and ball-growing, which are methods commonly used in designing spanner algorithms, to analyze simple greedy algorithms. This allows us to combine the flexibility of clustering approaches with the unique properties of the greedy algorithm to get improved bounds. In particular, our methods give a very short proof that the parallel greedy spanner adds O(kn^{1+1/k}) edges, improving upon known bounds.
Cite as

Elizaveta Popova and Elad Tzalik. New Greedy Spanners and Applications. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 107:1-107:25, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{popova_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.107,
  author =	{Popova, Elizaveta and Tzalik, Elad},
  title =	{{New Greedy Spanners and Applications}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{107:1--107:25},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.107},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253945},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.107},
  annote =	{Keywords: Graph Spanners, Greedy Algorithms}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.19
Traffic-Oblivious Multi-Commodity Flow Network Design

Authors: Markus Chimani and Max Ilsen

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 359, 36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025)

Abstract
We consider the Minimum Multi-Commodity Flow Subgraph (MMCFS) problem: given a directed graph G with edge capacities cap and a retention ratio α ∈ (0,1), find an edge-wise minimum subgraph G' ⊆ G such that for all traffic matrices T routable in G using a multi-commodity flow, α⋅ T is routable in G'. This natural yet novel problem is motivated by recent research that investigates how the power consumption in backbone computer networks can be reduced by turning off connections during times of low demand without compromising the quality of service. Since the actual traffic demands are generally not known beforehand, our approach must be traffic-oblivious, i.e., work for all possible sets of simultaneously routable traffic demands in the original network. In this paper we present the problem, relate it to other known problems in literature, and show several structural results, including a reformulation, maximum possible deviations from the optimum, and NP-hardness (as well as a certain inapproximability) already on very restricted instances. The most significant contribution is a max(1/α, 2)-approximation based on a surprisingly simple LP-rounding scheme. We also give instances where this worst-case approximation ratio is met and thus prove that our analysis is tight.
Cite as

Markus Chimani and Max Ilsen. Traffic-Oblivious Multi-Commodity Flow Network Design. In 36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 359, pp. 19:1-19:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{chimani_et_al:LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.19,
  author =	{Chimani, Markus and Ilsen, Max},
  title =	{{Traffic-Oblivious Multi-Commodity Flow Network Design}},
  booktitle =	{36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025)},
  pages =	{19:1--19:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-408-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{359},
  editor =	{Chen, Ho-Lin and Hon, Wing-Kai and Tsai, Meng-Tsung},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.19},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-249273},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.19},
  annote =	{Keywords: Multi-commodity flow, Digraphs, LP-rounding, Approximation algorithm}
}
Document
APPROX
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.22
Directed Buy-At-Bulk Spanners

Authors: Elena Grigorescu, Nithish Kumar, and Young-San Lin

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 353, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)

Abstract
We present a framework that unifies directed buy-at-bulk network design and directed spanner problems, namely, buy-at-bulk spanners. The goal is to find a minimum-cost routing solution for network design problems that captures economies at scale, while satisfying demands and distance constraints for terminal pairs. A more restricted version of this problem was shown to be O(2^{log^{1-ε} n})-hard to approximate, where n is the number of vertices, under a standard complexity assumption, by Elkin and Peleg (Theory of Computing Systems, 2007). Our results for buy-at-bulk spanners are the following. - When the edge lengths are integral with magnitude polynomial in n we present: 1) An Õ(n^{4/5 + ε})-approximation polynomial-time randomized algorithm for uniform demands. 2) An Õ(k^{1/2 + ε})-approximation polynomial-time randomized algorithm for general demands, where k is the number of terminal pairs. This can be improved to an Õ(k^{ε})-approximation algorithm for the single-source problem. The same approximation ratios hold in the online setting. - When the edge lengths are rational and well-conditioned, we present an Õ(k^{1/2 + ε})-approximation polynomial-time randomized algorithm that may slightly violate the distance constraints. The result can be improved to an Õ(k^ε)-approximation algorithm for the single-source problem. The same approximation ratios hold for the online setting when the condition number is given in advance. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first sublinear factor approximation algorithms for directed buy-at-bulk spanners. We allow the edge lengths to be negative and the demands to be non-unit, unlike the previous literature. Our approximation ratios match the state-of-the-art ratios in special cases, namely, buy-at-bulk network design by Antonakopoulos (WAOA, 2010) and (online) weighted spanners by Grigorescu, Kumar, and Lin (APPROX 2023). Furthermore, we improve the competitive ratio for online buy-at-bulk by Chakrabarty, Ene, Krishnaswamy, and Panigrahi (SICOMP, 2018) by a factor of log R, where R is the ratio between the maximum demand and the minimum demand.
Cite as

Elena Grigorescu, Nithish Kumar, and Young-San Lin. Directed Buy-At-Bulk Spanners. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 353, pp. 22:1-22:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{grigorescu_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.22,
  author =	{Grigorescu, Elena and Kumar, Nithish and Lin, Young-San},
  title =	{{Directed Buy-At-Bulk Spanners}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)},
  pages =	{22:1--22:24},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-397-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{353},
  editor =	{Ene, Alina and Chattopadhyay, Eshan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.22},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-243885},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.22},
  annote =	{Keywords: buy-at-bulk spanners, minimum density junction tree, resource constrained shortest path}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.66
Lipschitz Decompositions of Finite 𝓁_{p} Metrics

Authors: Robert Krauthgamer and Nir Petruschka

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 332, 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)

Abstract
Lipschitz decomposition is a useful tool in the design of efficient algorithms involving metric spaces. While many bounds are known for different families of finite metrics, the optimal parameters for n-point subsets of 𝓁_p, for p > 2, remained open, see e.g. [Naor, SODA 2017]. We make significant progress on this question and establish the bound β = O(log^{1-1/p} n). Building on prior work, we demonstrate applications of this result to two problems, high-dimensional geometric spanners and distance labeling schemes. In addition, we sharpen a related decomposition bound for 1 < p < 2, due to Filtser and Neiman [Algorithmica 2022].
Cite as

Robert Krauthgamer and Nir Petruschka. Lipschitz Decompositions of Finite 𝓁_{p} Metrics. In 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 332, pp. 66:1-66:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{krauthgamer_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.66,
  author =	{Krauthgamer, Robert and Petruschka, Nir},
  title =	{{Lipschitz Decompositions of Finite 𝓁\underline\{p\} Metrics}},
  booktitle =	{41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)},
  pages =	{66:1--66:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-370-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{332},
  editor =	{Aichholzer, Oswin and Wang, Haitao},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.66},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-232182},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.66},
  annote =	{Keywords: Lipschitz decompositions, metric embeddings, geometric spanners}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SAND.2025.9
Spanner Enumeration for Temporal Graphs

Authors: Kazuhiro Kurita, Andrea Marino, Jason Schoeters, and Takeaki Uno

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 330, 4th Symposium on Algorithmic Foundations of Dynamic Networks (SAND 2025)

Abstract
A spanner of a temporal graph is a subset of edges that preserves connectivity over time between vertices. A minimal spanner is one in which no additional edges can be removed without breaking this connectivity. Our focus is on enumerating minimal spanners for a given temporal graph. We explore several variations of this problem based on the type of connectivity that must be maintained, ranging from one-to-all connectivity to one-to-all-to-one, many-to-all, and finally all-to-all connectivity. We establish that these problems become progressively harder: (i) We present a polynomial-delay enumeration algorithm for one-to-all connectivity; (ii) We prove Dual-hardness for both one-to-all-to-one and many-to-all connectivity, even in the restricted case of two-to-all; (iii) Finally, for all-to-all connectivity, we show that enumeration cannot be performed in output-polynomial time unless P = NP.
Cite as

Kazuhiro Kurita, Andrea Marino, Jason Schoeters, and Takeaki Uno. Spanner Enumeration for Temporal Graphs. In 4th Symposium on Algorithmic Foundations of Dynamic Networks (SAND 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 330, pp. 9:1-9:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{kurita_et_al:LIPIcs.SAND.2025.9,
  author =	{Kurita, Kazuhiro and Marino, Andrea and Schoeters, Jason and Uno, Takeaki},
  title =	{{Spanner Enumeration for Temporal Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{4th Symposium on Algorithmic Foundations of Dynamic Networks (SAND 2025)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-368-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{330},
  editor =	{Meeks, Kitty and Scheideler, Christian},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SAND.2025.9},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-230621},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SAND.2025.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: temporal graphs, temporal spanners, one-to-all connectivity, all-to-all connectivity enumeration, NP-completeness, Dual-hardness, binary partition tree, flashlight search, polynomial delay}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SEA.2021.16
Multi-Level Weighted Additive Spanners

Authors: Reyan Ahmed, Greg Bodwin, Faryad Darabi Sahneh, Keaton Hamm, Stephen Kobourov, and Richard Spence

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 190, 19th International Symposium on Experimental Algorithms (SEA 2021)

Abstract
Given a graph G = (V,E), a subgraph H is an additive +β spanner if dist_H(u,v) ≤ dist_G(u,v) + β for all u, v ∈ V. A pairwise spanner is a spanner for which the above inequality is only required to hold for specific pairs P ⊆ V × V given on input; when the pairs have the structure P = S × S for some S ⊆ V, it is called a subsetwise spanner. Additive spanners in unweighted graphs have been studied extensively in the literature, but have only recently been generalized to weighted graphs. In this paper, we consider a multi-level version of the subsetwise additive spanner in weighted graphs motivated by multi-level network design and visualization, where the vertices in S possess varying level, priority, or quality of service (QoS) requirements. The goal is to compute a nested sequence of spanners with the minimum total number of edges. We first generalize the +2 subsetwise spanner of [Pettie 2008, Cygan et al., 2013] to the weighted setting. We experimentally measure the performance of this and several existing algorithms by [Ahmed et al., 2020] for weighted additive spanners, both in terms of runtime and sparsity of the output spanner, when applied as a subroutine to multi-level problem. We provide an experimental evaluation on graphs using several different random graph generators and show that these spanner algorithms typically achieve much better guarantees in terms of sparsity and additive error compared with the theoretical maximum. By analyzing our experimental results, we additionally developed a new technique of changing a certain initialization parameter which provides better spanners in practice at the expense of a small increase in running time.
Cite as

Reyan Ahmed, Greg Bodwin, Faryad Darabi Sahneh, Keaton Hamm, Stephen Kobourov, and Richard Spence. Multi-Level Weighted Additive Spanners. In 19th International Symposium on Experimental Algorithms (SEA 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 190, pp. 16:1-16:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)

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@InProceedings{ahmed_et_al:LIPIcs.SEA.2021.16,
  author =	{Ahmed, Reyan and Bodwin, Greg and Sahneh, Faryad Darabi and Hamm, Keaton and Kobourov, Stephen and Spence, Richard},
  title =	{{Multi-Level Weighted Additive Spanners}},
  booktitle =	{19th International Symposium on Experimental Algorithms (SEA 2021)},
  pages =	{16:1--16:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-185-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{190},
  editor =	{Coudert, David and Natale, Emanuele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SEA.2021.16},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-137885},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SEA.2021.16},
  annote =	{Keywords: multi-level, graph spanner, approximation algorithms}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2020.4
Kruskal-Based Approximation Algorithm for the Multi-Level Steiner Tree Problem

Authors: Reyan Ahmed, Faryad Darabi Sahneh, Keaton Hamm, Stephen Kobourov, and Richard Spence

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 173, 28th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2020)

Abstract
We study the multi-level Steiner tree problem: a generalization of the Steiner tree problem in graphs where terminals T require varying priority, level, or quality of service. In this problem, we seek to find a minimum cost tree containing edges of varying rates such that any two terminals u, v with priorities P(u), P(v) are connected using edges of rate min{P(u),P(v)} or better. The case where edge costs are proportional to their rate is approximable to within a constant factor of the optimal solution. For the more general case of non-proportional costs, this problem is hard to approximate with ratio c log log n, where n is the number of vertices in the graph. A simple greedy algorithm by Charikar et al., however, provides a min{2(ln |T|+1), 𝓁 ρ}-approximation in this setting, where ρ is an approximation ratio for a heuristic solver for the Steiner tree problem and 𝓁 is the number of priorities or levels (Byrka et al. give a Steiner tree algorithm with ρ≈1.39, for example). In this paper, we describe a natural generalization to the multi-level case of the classical (single-level) Steiner tree approximation algorithm based on Kruskal’s minimum spanning tree algorithm. We prove that this algorithm achieves an approximation ratio at least as good as Charikar et al., and experimentally performs better with respect to the optimum solution. We develop an integer linear programming formulation to compute an exact solution for the multi-level Steiner tree problem with non-proportional edge costs and use it to evaluate the performance of our algorithm on both random graphs and multi-level instances derived from SteinLib.
Cite as

Reyan Ahmed, Faryad Darabi Sahneh, Keaton Hamm, Stephen Kobourov, and Richard Spence. Kruskal-Based Approximation Algorithm for the Multi-Level Steiner Tree Problem. In 28th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 173, pp. 4:1-4:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{ahmed_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2020.4,
  author =	{Ahmed, Reyan and Sahneh, Faryad Darabi and Hamm, Keaton and Kobourov, Stephen and Spence, Richard},
  title =	{{Kruskal-Based Approximation Algorithm for the Multi-Level Steiner Tree Problem}},
  booktitle =	{28th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2020)},
  pages =	{4:1--4:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-162-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{173},
  editor =	{Grandoni, Fabrizio and Herman, Grzegorz and Sanders, Peter},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2020.4},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-128709},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2020.4},
  annote =	{Keywords: multi-level, Steiner tree, approximation algorithms}
}
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