Improved heuristics for the bounded-diameter minimum spanning tree problem

Given an undirected, connected, weighted graph and a positive integer k, the bounded-diameter minimum spanning tree (BDMST) problem seeks a spanning tree of the graph with smallest weight, among all spanning trees of the graph, which contain no path with more than k edges. In general, this problem is NP-Hard for 4 ≤ k < n − 1, where n is the number of vertices in the graph. This work is an improvement over two existing greedy heuristics, called randomized greedy heuristic (RGH) and centre-based tree construction heuristic (CBTC), and a permutation-coded evolutionary algorithm for the BDMST problem. We have proposed two improvements in RGH/CBTC. The first improvement iteratively tries to modify the bounded-diameter spanning tree obtained by RGH/CBTC so as to reduce its cost, whereas the second improves the speed. We have modified the crossover and mutation operators and the decoder used in permutation-coded evolutionary algorithm so as to improve its performance. Computational results show the effectiveness of our approaches. Our approaches obtained better quality solutions in a much shorter time on all test problem instances considered.     

Enhanced second order algorithm applied to the capacitated minimum spanning tree problem

Given a centralized undirected graph with costs associated with its edges, the capacitated minimum spanning tree problem is to find a minimum cost spanning tree of the given graph, subject to a capacity constraint in all subtrees incident in the central node. As the problem is NP-hard, we propose an enhanced version of the well-known second order algorithm, described in [Karnaugh M. A new class of algorithms for multipoint network optimization. IEEE Transactions on Communications 1976;COM-24:500–5.]. The original version of this algorithm is based on a look-ahead strategy, used for a tentative inclusion of a constraint to the problem, performed in each iteration. In the new enhanced version, we propose the inclusion of look-behind steps, which can be seen as the reverse of the look-ahead procedure. Therefore and using some memory features, the method can continue even when facing the traditional stopping criterion of the original algorithm. Computational experiments showing the effectiveness of the new method on benchmark instances are reported.     

求解度约束最小生成树的新的快速算法

针对度约束最小生成树问题,提出了一种新的快速算法。新的快速算法分为两个主要部分,第一部分从一棵最小生成树出发,构造一棵度约束树。第二部分设计了一种改进策略,从第一部分求得的度约束树出发,每次去掉树的一条边,将顶点按照连通性划分成两个集合,在不违反度约束的情况下,从这两个集合构成的边割中,选择一条权值减少最大的边添加到图中。通过大量的数值实验表明新的快速算法性能良好。     

Degree-constrained minimum spanning tree problem with uncertain edge weights

Uncertainty theory has shown great advantages in solving many nondeterministic problems, one of which is the degree-constrained minimum spanning tree (DCMST) problem in uncertain networks. Based on different criteria for ranking uncertain variables, three types of DCMST models are proposed here: uncertain expected value DCMST model, uncertain α-DCMST model and uncertain most chance DCMST model. In this paper, we give their uncertainty distributions and fully characterize uncertain expected value DCMST and uncertain α-DCMST in uncertain networks. We also discover an equivalence relation between the uncertain α-DCMST of an uncertain network and the DCMST of the corresponding deterministic network. Finally, a related genetic algorithm is proposed here to solve the three models, and some numerical examples are provided to illustrate its effectiveness.     

The multi-criteria minimum spanning tree problem based genetic algorithm

Minimum spanning tree (MST) problem is of high importance in network optimization and can be solved efficiently. The multi-criteria MST (mc-MST) is a more realistic representation of the practical problems in the real world, but it is difficult for traditional optimization technique to deal with. In this paper, a non-generational genetic algorithm (GA) for mc-MST is proposed. To keep the population diversity, this paper designs an efficient crossover operator by using dislocation a crossover technique and builds a niche evolution procedure, where a better offspring does not replace the whole or most individuals but replaces the worse ones of the current population. To evaluate the non-generational GA, the solution sets generated by it are compared with solution sets from an improved algorithm for enumerating all Pareto optimal spanning trees. The improved enumeration algorithm is proved to find all Pareto optimal solutions and experimental results show that the non-generational GA is efficient.     

最小耗费生成树剔除算法及其正确性证明

文章提出了一种新的最小耗费生成树的算法,并对其正确性进行了证明。该算法通过从原图中逐步别除边来形成生成树,特别适用于当原图中边数较少(相对于顶点数),或原图规模不大的情形。     

Efficient determination of the k most vital edges for the minimum spanning tree problem

We study in this paper the problem of finding in a graph a subset of k edges whose deletion causes the largest increase in the weight of a minimum spanning tree. We propose for this problem an explicit enumeration algorithm whose complexity, when compared to the current best algorithm, is better for general k but very slightly worse for fixed k. More interestingly, unlike in the previous algorithms, we can easily adapt our algorithm so as to transform it into an implicit enumeration algorithm based on a branch and bound scheme. We also propose a mixed integer programming formulation for this problem. Computational results show a clear superiority of the implicit enumeration algorithm both over the explicit enumeration algorithm and the mixed integer program.     

Fair cost-sharing methods for the minimum spanning tree game

We study the problem of sharing in a fair manner the cost of a service provided to a set of players in the context of Cooperative Game Theory. We introduce a new fairness measure capturing the dissatisfaction (or happiness) of each player and we propose two cost sharing methods minimizing the maximum or average dissatisfaction of the clients for the classical minimum spanning tree game.     

Efficient minimum spanning tree construction without Delaunay triangulation

Given n points in a plane, a minimum spanning tree is a set of edges which connects all the points and has a minimum total length. A naive approach enumerates edges on all pairs of points and takes at least Ω(n2) time. More efficient approaches find a minimum spanning tree only among edges in the Delaunay triangulation of the points. However, Delaunay triangulation is not well defined in rectilinear distance. In this paper, we first establish a framework for minimum spanning tree construction which is based on a general concept of spanning graphs. A spanning graph is a natural definition and not necessarily a Delaunay triangulation. Based on this framework, we then design an O(nlogn) sweep-line algorithm to construct a rectilinear minimum spanning tree without using Delaunay triangulation.     

Savings based ant colony optimization for the capacitated minimum spanning tree problem

The problem of connecting a set of client nodes with known demands to a root node through a minimum cost tree network, subject to capacity constraints on all links is known as the capacitated minimum spanning tree (CMST) problem. As the problem is NP-hard, we propose a hybrid ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm to tackle it heuristically. The algorithm exploits two important problem characteristics: (i) the CMST problem is closely related to the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP), and (ii) given a clustering of client nodes that satisfies capacity constraints, the solution is to find a MST for each cluster, which can be done exactly in polynomial time. Our ACO exploits these two characteristics of the CMST by a solution construction originally developed for the CVRP. Given the CVRP solution, we then apply an implementation of Prim's algorithm to each cluster to obtain a feasible CMST solution. Results from a comprehensive computational study indicate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

A swarm intelligence approach to the quadratic minimum spanning tree problem

The quadratic minimum spanning tree problem (Q-MST) is an extension of the minimum spanning tree problem (MST). In Q-MST, in addition to edge costs, costs are also associated with ordered pairs of distinct edges and one has to find a spanning tree that minimizes the sumtotal of the costs of individual edges present in the spanning tree and the costs of the ordered pairs containing only edges present in the spanning tree. Though MST can be solved in polynomial time, Q-MST is NP-Hard. In this paper we present an artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm to solve Q-MST. The ABC algorithm is a new swarm intelligence approach inspired by intelligent foraging behavior of honey bees. Computational results show the effectiveness of our approach.     

A filter-and-fan algorithm for the capacitated minimum spanning tree problem

The capacitated minimum spanning tree (CMST) is a notoriously difficult problem in combinatorial optimization. Extensive investigation has been devoted to developing efficient algorithms to find optimal or near-optimal solutions. This paper proposes a new CMST heuristic algorithm that effectively combines the classical node-based and tree-based neighborhoods embodied in a filter-and-fan (F&F) approach, a local search procedure that generates compound moves in a tree search fashion. The overall algorithm is guided by a multi-level oscillation strategy used to trigger each type of neighborhood while allowing the search to cross feasibility boundaries. Computational results carried out on a standard set of 135 benchmark problems show that a simple F&F design competes effectively with prior CMST metaheuristics, rivaling the best methods, which are significantly more complex.     

Computing all efficient solutions of the biobjective minimum spanning tree problem

A common way of computing all efficient (Pareto optimal) solutions for a biobjective combinatorial optimisation problem is to compute first the extreme efficient solutions and then the remaining, non-extreme solutions. The second phase, the computation of non-extreme solutions, can be based on a “k-best” algorithm for the single-objective version of the problem or on the branch-and-bound method. A k-best algorithm computes the k-best solutions in order of their objective values. We compare the performance of these two approaches applied to the biobjective minimum spanning tree problem. Our extensive computational experiments indicate the overwhelming superiority of the k-best approach. We propose heuristic enhancements to this approach which further improve its performance.     

Rectilinear steiner tree heuristics and minimum spanning tree algorithms using geographic nearest neighbors

We study the application of the geographic nearest neighbor approach to two problems. The first problem is the construction of an approximately minimum length rectilinear Steiner tree for a set ofn points in the plane. For this problem, we introduce a variation of a subgraph of sizeO(n) used by YaO [31] for constructing minimum spanning trees. Using this subgraph, we improve the running times of the heuristics discussed by Bern [6] fromO(n ² log n) toO(n log² n). The second problem is the construction of a rectilinear minimum spanning tree for a set ofn noncrossing line segments in the plane. We present an optimalO(n logn) algorithm for this problem. The rectilinear minimum spanning tree for a set of points can thus be computed optimally without using the Voronoi diagram. This algorithm can also be extended to obtain a rectilinear minimum spanning tree for a set of nonintersecting simple polygons.The results in this paper are a part of Y. C. Yee's Ph.D. thesis done at SUNY at Albany. He was supported in part by NSF Grants IRI-8703430 and CCR-8805782. S. S. Ravi was supported in part by NSF Grants DCI-86-03318 and CCR-89-05296.     

A faster distributed protocol for constructing a minimum spanning tree

This paper studies the problem of constructing a minimum-weight spanning tree (MST) in a distributed network. This is one of the most important problems in the area of distributed computing. There is a long line of gradually improving protocols for this problem, and the state of the art today is a protocol with running time due to Kutten and Peleg [S. Kutten, D. Peleg, Fast distributed construction of k-dominating sets and applications, J. Algorithms 28 (1998) 40-66; preliminary version appeared in: Proc. of 14th ACM Symp. on Principles of Distributed Computing, Ottawa, Canada, August 1995, pp. 20-27], where Λ(G) denotes the diameter of the graph G. Peleg and Rubinovich [D. Peleg, V. Rubinovich, A near-tight lower bound on the time complexity of distributed MST construction, in: Proc. 40th IEEE Symp. on Foundations of Computer Science, 1999, pp. 253-261] have shown that time is required for constructing MST even on graphs of small diameter, and claimed that their result “establishes the asymptotic near-optimality” of the protocol of [S. Kutten, D. Peleg, Fast distributed construction of k-dominating sets and applications, J. Algorithms 28 (1998) 40-66; preliminary version appeared in: Proc. of 14th ACM Symp. on Principles of Distributed Computing, Ottawa, Canada, August 1995, pp. 20-27].In this paper we refine this claim, and devise a protocol that constructs the MST in rounds, where μ(G,ω) is the MST-radius of the graph. The ratio between the diameter and the MST-radius may be as large as Θ(n), and, consequently, on some inputs our protocol is faster than the protocol of [S. Kutten, D. Peleg, Fast distributed construction of k-dominating sets and applications, J. Algorithms 28 (1998) 40-66; preliminary version appeared in: Proc. of 14th ACM Symp. on Principles of Distributed Computing, Ottawa, Canada, August 1995, pp. 20-27] by a factor of . Also, on every input, the running time of our protocol is never greater than twice the running time of the protocol of [S. Kutten, D. Peleg, Fast distributed construction of k-dominating sets and applications, J. Algorithms 28 (1998) 40-66; preliminary version appeared in: Proc. of 14th ACM Symp. on Principles of Distributed Computing, Ottawa, Canada, August 1995, pp. 20-27].As part of our protocol for constructing an MST, we develop a protocol for constructing neighborhood covers with a drastically improved running time. The latter result may be of independent interest.     

Optimal algorithms for the single and multiple vertex updating problems of a minimum spanning tree

The vertex updating problem for a minimum spanning tree (MST) is defined as follows: Given a graphG=(V, E _G) and an MSTT forG, find a new MST forG to which a new vertexz has been added along with weighted edges that connectz with the vertices ofG. We present a set of rules that produce simple optimal parallel algorithms that run inO(lgn) time usingn/lgn EREW PRAM processors, wheren=¦V¦. These algorithms employ any valid tree-contraction schedule that can be produced within the stated resource bounds. These rules can also be used to derive simple linear-time sequential algorithms for the same problem. The previously best-known parallel result was a rather complicated algorithm that usedn processors in the more powerful CREW PRAM model. Furthermore, we show how our solution can be used to solve the multiple vertex updating problem: Update a given MST whenk new vertices are introduced simultaneously. This problem is solved inO(lgk·lgn) parallel time using (k·n)/(lgk·lgn) EREW PRAM processors. This is optimal for graphs having (kn) edges.Part of this work was done while P. Metaxas was with the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Dartmouth College.     

Parallel and serial heuristics for the minimum set cover problem

We present a theoretical analysis and an experimental evaluation of four serial heuristics and four parallel heuristics for the minimum set cover problem. The serial heuristics trade off run time with the quality of the solution. The parallel heuristics are derived from one of the serial heuristics. These heuristics show considerable speedup when the number of processors is increased. The quality of the solution computed by the heuristics does not degrade with an increase in the number of processors.Research of both authors was supported by NSF Grant No. MIP-8807540.