No Arabic abstract
In the Priority Steiner Tree (PST) problem, we are given an undirected graph $G=(V,E)$ with a source $s in V$ and terminals $T subseteq V setminus {s}$, where each terminal $v in T$ requires a nonnegative priority $P(v)$. The goal is to compute a minimum weight Steiner tree containing edges of varying rates such that the path from $s$ to each terminal $v$ consists of edges of rate greater than or equal to $P(v)$. The PST problem with $k$ priorities admits a $min{2 ln |T| + 2, krho}$-approximation [Charikar et al., 2004], and is hard to approximate with ratio $c log log n$ for some constant $c$ [Chuzhoy et al., 2008]. In this paper, we first strengthen the analysis provided by [Charikar et al., 2004] for the $(2 ln |T| + 2)$-approximation to show an approximation ratio of $lceil log_2 |T| rceil + 1 le 1.443 ln |T| + 2$, then provide a very simple, parallelizable algorithm which achieves the same approximation ratio. We then consider a more difficult node-weighted version of the PST problem, and provide a $(2 ln |T|+2)$-approximation using extensions of the spider decomposition by [Klein & Ravi, 1995]. This is the first result for the PST problem in node-weighted graphs. Moreover, the approximation ratios for all above algorithms are tight.
We study the prize-collecting version of the Node-weighted Steiner Tree problem (NWPCST) restricted to planar graphs. We give a new primal-dual Lagrangian-multiplier-preserving (LMP) 3-approximation algorithm for planar NWPCST. We then show a ($2.88 + epsilon$)-approximation which establishes a new best approximation guarantee for planar NWPCST. This is done by combining our LMP algorithm with a threshold rounding technique and utilizing the 2.4-approximation of Berman and Yaroslavtsev for the version without penalties. We also give a primal-dual 4-approximation algorithm for the more general forest version using techniques introduced by Hajiaghay and Jain.
The Steiner Tree problem is a classical problem in combinatorial optimization: the goal is to connect a set $T$ of terminals in a graph $G$ by a tree of minimum size. Karpinski and Zelikovsky (1996) studied the $delta$-dense version of {sc Steiner Tree}, where each terminal has at least $delta |V(G)setminus T|$ neighbours outside $T$, for a fixed $delta > 0$. They gave a PTAS for this problem. We study a generalization of pairwise $delta$-dense {sc Steiner Forest}, which asks for a minimum-size forest in $G$ in which the nodes in each terminal set $T_1,dots,T_k$ are connected, and every terminal in $T_i$ has at least $delta |T_j|$ neighbours in $T_j$, and at least $delta|S|$ nodes in $S = V(G)setminus (T_1cupdotscup T_k)$, for each $i, j$ in ${1,dots, k}$ with $i eq j$. Our first result is a polynomial-time approximation scheme for all $delta > 1/2$. Then, we show a $(frac{13}{12}+varepsilon)$-approximation algorithm for $delta = 1/2$ and any $varepsilon > 0$. We also consider the $delta$-dense Group Steiner Tree problem as defined by Hauptmann and show that the problem is $mathsf{APX}$-hard.
Given a graph $G = (V,E)$ and a subset $T subseteq V$ of terminals, a emph{Steiner tree} of $G$ is a tree that spans $T$. In the vertex-weighted Steiner tree (VST) problem, each vertex is assigned a non-negative weight, and the goal is to compute a minimum weight Steiner tree of $G$. We study a natural generalization of the VST problem motivated by multi-level graph construction, the emph{vertex-weighted grade-of-service Steiner tree problem} (V-GSST), which can be stated as follows: given a graph $G$ and terminals $T$, where each terminal $v in T$ requires a facility of a minimum grade of service $R(v)in {1,2,ldotsell}$, compute a Steiner tree $G$ by installing facilities on a subset of vertices, such that any two vertices requiring a certain grade of service are connected by a path in $G$ with the minimum grade of service or better. Facilities of higher grade are more costly than facilities of lower grade. Multi-level variants such as this one can be useful in network design problems where vertices may require facilities of varying priority. While similar problems have been studied in the edge-weighted case, they have not been studied as well in the more general vertex-weighted case. We first describe a simple heuristic for the V-GSST problem whose approximation ratio depends on $ell$, the number of grades of service. We then generalize the greedy algorithm of [Klein & Ravi, 1995] to show that the V-GSST problem admits a $(2 ln |T|)$-approximation, where $T$ is the set of terminals requiring some facility. This result is surprising, as it shows that the (seemingly harder) multi-grade problem can be approximated as well as the VST problem, and that the approximation ratio does not depend on the number of grades of service.
Robust optimization is a widely studied area in operations research, where the algorithm takes as input a range of values and outputs a single solution that performs well for the entire range. Specifically, a robust algorithm aims to minimize regret, defined as the maximum difference between the solutions cost and that of an optimal solution in hindsight once the input has been realized. For graph problems in P, such as shortest path and minimum spanning tree, robust polynomial-time algorithms that obtain a constant approximation on regret are known. In this paper, we study robust algorithms for minimizing regret in NP-hard graph optimization problems, and give constant approximations on regret for the classical traveling salesman and Steiner tree problems.
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 $min{2(ln |T|+1), ell rho}$-approximation in this setting, where $rho$ is an approximation ratio for a heuristic solver for the Steiner tree problem and $ell$ is the number of priorities or levels (Byrka et al. give a Steiner tree algorithm with $rhoapprox 1.39$, 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 Kruskals 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.