4 Search Results for "Kumar, Nithish"

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
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
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.69
Approximation Algorithms for Optimal Hopsets

Authors: Michael Dinitz, Ama Koranteng, and Yasamin Nazari

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 334, 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)

Abstract
For a given graph G, a hopset H with hopbound β and stretch α is a set of edges such that between every pair of vertices u and v, there is a path with at most β hops in G ∪ H that approximates the distance between u and v up to a multiplicative stretch of α. Hopsets have found a wide range of applications for distance-based problems in various computational models since the 90s. More recently, there has been significant interest in understanding these fundamental objects from an existential and structural perspective. But all of this work takes a worst-case (or existential) point of view: How many edges do we need to add to satisfy a given hopbound and stretch requirement for any input graph? We initiate the study of the natural optimization variant of this problem: given a specific graph instance, what is the minimum number of edges that satisfy the hopbound and stretch requirements? We give approximation algorithms for a generalized hopset problem which, when combined with known existential bounds, lead to different approximation guarantees for various regimes depending on hopbound, stretch, and directed vs. undirected inputs. We complement our upper bounds with a lower bound that implies Label Cover hardness for directed hopsets and shortcut sets with hopbound at least 3.
Cite as

Michael Dinitz, Ama Koranteng, and Yasamin Nazari. Approximation Algorithms for Optimal Hopsets. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 69:1-69:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{dinitz_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.69,
  author =	{Dinitz, Michael and Koranteng, Ama and Nazari, Yasamin},
  title =	{{Approximation Algorithms for Optimal Hopsets}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{69:1--69:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-372-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{334},
  editor =	{Censor-Hillel, Keren and Grandoni, Fabrizio and Ouaknine, Jo\"{e}l and Puppis, Gabriele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.69},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-234464},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.69},
  annote =	{Keywords: Hopsets, Approximation Algorithms}
}
Document
APPROX
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.8
Approximation Algorithms for Directed Weighted Spanners

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

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 275, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2023)

Abstract
In the pairwise weighted spanner problem, the input consists of a weighted directed graph on n vertices, where each edge is assigned both a cost and a length. Furthermore, we are given k terminal vertex pairs and a distance constraint for each pair. The goal is to find a minimum-cost subgraph in which the distance constraints are satisfied. We study the weighted spanner problem, in which the edges have positive integral lengths of magnitudes that are polynomial in n, while the costs are arbitrary non-negative rational numbers. Our results include the following in the classical offline setting: - An Õ(n^{4/5 + ε})-approximation algorithm for the weighted pairwise spanner problem. When the edges have unit costs and lengths, the best previous algorithm gives an Õ(n^{3/5 + ε})-approximation, due to Chlamtáč, Dinitz, Kortsarz, and Laekhanukit (Transactions on Algorithms, 2020). - An Õ(n^{1/2+ε})-approximation algorithm for the weighted spanner problem when the terminal pairs consist of all vertex pairs and the distances must be preserved exactly. When the edges have unit costs and arbitrary positive lengths, the best previous algorithm gives an Õ(n^{1/2})-approximation for the all-pair spanner problem, due to Berman, Bhattacharyya, Makarychev, Raskhodnikova, and Yaroslavtsev (Information and Computation, 2013). We also prove the first results for the weighted spanners in the online setting. Our results include the following: - An Õ(k^{1/2 + ε})-competitive algorithm for the online weighted pairwise spanner problem. The state-of-the-art results are an Õ(n^{4/5})-competitive algorithm when edges have unit costs and arbitrary positive lengths, and a min{Õ(k^{1/2 + ε}), Õ(n^{2/3 + ε})}-competitive algorithm when edges have unit costs and lengths, due to Grigorescu, Lin, and Quanrud (APPROX, 2021). - An Õ(k^ε)-competitive algorithm for the online weighted single-source (or single-sink) spanner problem. Without distance constraints, this problem is equivalent to the online directed Steiner tree problem. The best previous algorithm for online directed Steiner trees is an Õ(k^ε)-competitive algorithm, due to Chakrabarty, Ene, Krishnaswamy, and Panigrahi (SICOMP, 2018). Our online results also imply efficient approximation algorithms for the corresponding offline problems. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first approximation (online) polynomial-time algorithms with sublinear approximation (competitive) ratios for the weighted spanner problems.
Cite as

Elena Grigorescu, Nithish Kumar, and Young-San Lin. Approximation Algorithms for Directed Weighted Spanners. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 275, pp. 8:1-8:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{grigorescu_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.8,
  author =	{Grigorescu, Elena and Kumar, Nithish and Lin, Young-San},
  title =	{{Approximation Algorithms for Directed Weighted Spanners}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2023)},
  pages =	{8:1--8:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-296-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{275},
  editor =	{Megow, Nicole and Smith, Adam},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.8},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-188335},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.8},
  annote =	{Keywords: directed weighted spanners, linear programming, junction tree}
}
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