Charting the Algorithmic Complexity of Waypoint Routing

Modern computer networks support interesting new routing models in which traffic flows from a source sto a destination t can be flexibly steered through a sequence of waypoints, such as (hardware) middleboxes or (virtualized) network functions (VNFs), to create innovative network services like service chains or segment routing. While the benefits and technological challenges of providing such routing models have been articulated and studied intensively over the last years, less is known about the underlying algorithmic traffic routing problems. The goal of this paper is to provide the network community with an overview of algorithmic techniques for waypoint routing and also inform about limitations due to computational hardness. In particular, we put the waypoint routing problem into perspective with respect to classic graph theoretical problems. For example, we find that while computing a shortest path from a source s to a destination t is simple (e.g., using Dijkstra's algorithm), the problem of finding a shortest route from s to t via a single waypoint already features a deep combinatorial structure.</jats:p

Shortest Reconfiguration of Perfect Matchings via Alternating Cycles

Motivated by adjacency in perfect matching polytopes, we study the shortest reconfiguration problem of perfect matchings via alternating cycles. Namely, we want to find a shortest sequence of perfect matchings which transforms one given perfect matching to another given perfect matching such that the symmetric difference of each pair of consecutive perfect matchings is a single cycle. The problem is equivalent to the combinatorial shortest path problem in perfect matching polytopes. We prove that the problem is NP-hard even when a given graph is planar or bipartite, but it can be solved in polynomial time when the graph is outerplanar

Approximately Counting Embeddings into Random Graphs

Let H be a graph, and let C_H(G) be the number of (subgraph isomorphic) copies of H contained in a graph G. We investigate the fundamental problem of estimating C_H(G). Previous results cover only a few specific instances of this general problem, for example, the case when H has degree at most one (monomer-dimer problem). In this paper, we present the first general subcase of the subgraph isomorphism counting problem which is almost always efficiently approximable. The results rely on a new graph decomposition technique. Informally, the decomposition is a labeling of the vertices such that every edge is between vertices with different labels and for every vertex all neighbors with a higher label have identical labels. The labeling implicitly generates a sequence of bipartite graphs which permits us to break the problem of counting embeddings of large subgraphs into that of counting embeddings of small subgraphs. Using this method, we present a simple randomized algorithm for the counting problem. For all decomposable graphs H and all graphs G, the algorithm is an unbiased estimator. Furthermore, for all graphs H having a decomposition where each of the bipartite graphs generated is small and almost all graphs G, the algorithm is a fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme. We show that the graph classes of H for which we obtain a fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme for almost all G includes graphs of degree at most two, bounded-degree forests, bounded-length grid graphs, subdivision of bounded-degree graphs, and major subclasses of outerplanar graphs, series-parallel graphs and planar graphs, whereas unbounded-length grid graphs are excluded.Comment: Earlier version appeared in Random 2008. Fixed an typo in Definition 3.

On vertex coloring without monochromatic triangles

We study a certain relaxation of the classic vertex coloring problem, namely, a coloring of vertices of undirected, simple graphs, such that there are no monochromatic triangles. We give the first classification of the problem in terms of classic and parametrized algorithms. Several computational complexity results are also presented, which improve on the previous results found in the literature. We propose the new structural parameter for undirected, simple graphs -- the triangle-free chromatic number $\chi_3$. We bound $\chi_3$ by other known structural parameters. We also present two classes of graphs with interesting coloring properties, that play pivotal role in proving useful observation about our problem. We give/ask several conjectures/questions throughout this paper to encourage new research in the area of graph coloring.Comment: Extended abstrac

Hyperbolic intersection graphs and (quasi)-polynomial time

We study unit ball graphs (and, more generally, so-called noisy uniform ball graphs) in $d$-dimensional hyperbolic space, which we denote by $\mathbb{H}^d$. Using a new separator theorem, we show that unit ball graphs in $\mathbb{H}^d$ enjoy similar properties as their Euclidean counterparts, but in one dimension lower: many standard graph problems, such as Independent Set, Dominating Set, Steiner Tree, and Hamiltonian Cycle can be solved in $2^{O(n^{1-1/(d-1)})}$ time for any fixed $d\geq 3$, while the same problems need $2^{O(n^{1-1/d})}$ time in $\mathbb{R}^d$. We also show that these algorithms in $\mathbb{H}^d$ are optimal up to constant factors in the exponent under ETH. This drop in dimension has the largest impact in $\mathbb{H}^2$, where we introduce a new technique to bound the treewidth of noisy uniform disk graphs. The bounds yield quasi-polynomial ($n^{O(\log n)}$) algorithms for all of the studied problems, while in the case of Hamiltonian Cycle and $3$-Coloring we even get polynomial time algorithms. Furthermore, if the underlying noisy disks in $\mathbb{H}^2$ have constant maximum degree, then all studied problems can be solved in polynomial time. This contrasts with the fact that these problems require $2^{\Omega(\sqrt{n})}$ time under ETH in constant maximum degree Euclidean unit disk graphs. Finally, we complement our quasi-polynomial algorithm for Independent Set in noisy uniform disk graphs with a matching $n^{\Omega(\log n)}$ lower bound under ETH. This shows that the hyperbolic plane is a potential source of NP-intermediate problems.Comment: Short version appears in SODA 202

A Trichotomy for Regular Simple Path Queries on Graphs

Regular path queries (RPQs) select nodes connected by some path in a graph. The edge labels of such a path have to form a word that matches a given regular expression. We investigate the evaluation of RPQs with an additional constraint that prevents multiple traversals of the same nodes. Those regular simple path queries (RSPQs) find several applications in practice, yet they quickly become intractable, even for basic languages such as (aa)* or a*ba*. In this paper, we establish a comprehensive classification of regular languages with respect to the complexity of the corresponding regular simple path query problem. More precisely, we identify the fragment that is maximal in the following sense: regular simple path queries can be evaluated in polynomial time for every regular language L that belongs to this fragment and evaluation is NP-complete for languages outside this fragment. We thus fully characterize the frontier between tractability and intractability for RSPQs, and we refine our results to show the following trichotomy: Evaluations of RSPQs is either AC0, NL-complete or NP-complete in data complexity, depending on the regular language L. The fragment identified also admits a simple characterization in terms of regular expressions. Finally, we also discuss the complexity of the following decision problem: decide, given a language L, whether finding a regular simple path for L is tractable. We consider several alternative representations of L: DFAs, NFAs or regular expressions, and prove that this problem is NL-complete for the first representation and PSPACE-complete for the other two. As a conclusion we extend our results from edge-labeled graphs to vertex-labeled graphs and vertex-edge labeled graphs.Comment: 15 pages, conference submissio

Strongly Monotone Drawings of Planar Graphs

A straight-line drawing of a graph is a monotone drawing if for each pair of vertices there is a path which is monotonically increasing in some direction, and it is called a strongly monotone drawing if the direction of monotonicity is given by the direction of the line segment connecting the two vertices. We present algorithms to compute crossing-free strongly monotone drawings for some classes of planar graphs; namely, 3-connected planar graphs, outerplanar graphs, and 2-trees. The drawings of 3-connected planar graphs are based on primal-dual circle packings. Our drawings of outerplanar graphs are based on a new algorithm that constructs strongly monotone drawings of trees which are also convex. For irreducible trees, these drawings are strictly convex