Maximum Skew-Symmetric Flows and Matchings

The maximum integer skew-symmetric flow problem (MSFP) generalizes both the maximum flow and maximum matching problems. It was introduced by Tutte in terms of self-conjugate flows in antisymmetrical digraphs. He showed that for these objects there are natural analogs of classical theoretical results on usual network flows, such as the flow decomposition, augmenting path, and max-flow min-cut theorems. We give unified and shorter proofs for those theoretical results. We then extend to MSFP the shortest augmenting path method of Edmonds and Karp and the blocking flow method of Dinits, obtaining algorithms with similar time bounds in general case. Moreover, in the cases of unit arc capacities and unit ``node capacities'' the blocking skew-symmetric flow algorithm has time bounds similar to those established in Even and Tarjan (1975) and Karzanov (1973) for Dinits' algorithm. In particular, this implies an algorithm for finding a maximum matching in a nonbipartite graph in $O(\sqrt{n}m)$ time, which matches the time bound for the algorithm of Micali and Vazirani. Finally, extending a clique compression technique of Feder and Motwani to particular skew-symmetric graphs, we speed up the implied maximum matching algorithm to run in $O(\sqrt{n}m\log(n^2/m)/\log{n})$ time, improving the best known bound for dense nonbipartite graphs. Also other theoretical and algorithmic results on skew-symmetric flows and their applications are presented.Comment: 35 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Mathematical Programming, minor stylistic corrections and shortenings to the original versio

Discrete Convex Functions on Graphs and Their Algorithmic Applications

The present article is an exposition of a theory of discrete convex functions on certain graph structures, developed by the author in recent years. This theory is a spin-off of discrete convex analysis by Murota, and is motivated by combinatorial dualities in multiflow problems and the complexity classification of facility location problems on graphs. We outline the theory and algorithmic applications in combinatorial optimization problems

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

Degree-constrained Subgraph Reconfiguration is in P

The degree-constrained subgraph problem asks for a subgraph of a given graph such that the degree of each vertex is within some specified bounds. We study the following reconfiguration variant of this problem: Given two solutions to a degree-constrained subgraph instance, can we transform one solution into the other by adding and removing individual edges, such that each intermediate subgraph satisfies the degree constraints and contains at least a certain minimum number of edges? This problem is a generalization of the matching reconfiguration problem, which is known to be in P. We show that even in the more general setting the reconfiguration problem is in P.Comment: Full version of the paper published at Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS) 201

Sur l'utilisation du codage réseau et du multicast pour améliorer la performance dans les réseaux filaires

La popularité de la grande variété de l'utilisation d'Internet entraîne une croissance significative du trafic de données dans les réseaux de télécommunications. L'efficacité de la transmission de données sera contestée en vertu du principe de la capacité actuelle du réseau et des mécanismes de contrôle de flux de données. En plus d'augmenter l'investissement financier pour étendre la capacité du réseau, améliorer les techniques existantes est plus rationnel et éconmique.Diverses recherches de pointe pour faire face aux besoins en évolution des réseaux ont vu le jour, et l'une d'elles est appelée codage de réseau. Comme une extension naturelle dans la théorie du codage, il permet le mélange de différents flux réseau sur les noeuds intermédiaires, ce qui modifie la façon d'éviter les collisions de flux de données. Il a été appliqué pour obtenir un meilleur débit, fiabilité, sécurité et robustesse dans différents environnements et applications réseau. Cette thèse porte sur l'utilisation du réseau de codage pour le multicast dans les réseaux maillés fixes et systèmes de stockage distribués. Nous avons d'abord des modèles de différentes stratégies de routage multicast dans un cadre d'optimisation, y compris de multicast à base d'arbres et de codage de réseau; nous résolvons les modèles avec des algorithmes efficaces et comparons l'avantage de codage, en termes de gain de débit de taille moyenne graphique généré aléatoirement. Basé sur l'analyse numérique obtenue à partir des expériences précédentes, nous proposons un cadre révisé de routage multicast, appelé codage de réseau stratégique, qui combine transmission muticast standard et fonctions de codage de réseau afin d'obtenir le maximum de bénéfice de codage réseau au moindre coût lorsque ces coûts dépendent à la fois sur le nombre de noeuds à exécuter un codage et le volume de trafic qui est codé. Enfin, nous étudions le problème révisé de transport qui est capable de calculer un système de routage statique entre les serveurs et les clients dans les systèmes de stockage distribués où nous appliquons le codage pour soutenir le stockage de contenu. Nous étendons l'application à un problème d'optimisation général, nommé problème de transport avec des contraintes de degré, qui peut être largement utilisé dans divers domaines industriels, y compris les télécommunications, mais n'a pas été étudié très souvent. Pour ce problème, nous obtenons quelques résultats théoriques préliminaires et nous proposons une approche de décomposition Lagrange raisonnableThe popularity of the great variety of Internet usage brings about a significant growth of the data traffic in telecommunication network. Data transmission efficiency will be challenged under the premise of current network capacity and data flow control mechanisms. In addition to increasing financial investment to expand the network capacity, improving the existing techniques are more rational and economical. Various cutting-edge researches to cope with future network requirement have emerged, and one of them is called network coding. As a natural extension in coding theory, it allows mixing different network flows on the intermediate nodes, which changes the way of avoiding collisions of data flows. It has been applied to achieve better throughput and reliability, security, and robustness in various network environments and applications. This dissertation focuses on the use of network coding for multicast in fixed mesh networks and distributed storage systems. We first model various multicast routing strategies within an optimization framework, including tree-based multicast and network coding; we solve the models with efficient algorithms, and compare the coding advantage, in terms of throughput gain in medium size randomly generated graphs. Based on the numerical analysis obtained from previous experiments, we propose a revised multicast routing framework, called strategic network coding, which combines standard multicast forwarding and network coding features in order to obtain the most benefit from network coding at lowest cost where such costs depend both on the number of nodes performing coding and the volume of traffic that is coded. Finally, we investigate a revised transportation problem which is capable of calculating a static routing scheme between servers and clients in distributed storage systems where we apply coding to support the storage of contents. We extend the application to a general optimization problem, named transportation problem with degree constraints, which can be widely used in different industrial fields, including telecommunication, but has not been studied very often. For this problem, we derive some preliminary theoretical results and propose a reasonable Lagrangian decomposition approachEVRY-INT (912282302) / SudocSudocFranceF