Sublinear Distance Labeling

A distance labeling scheme labels the $n$ nodes of a graph with binary strings such that, given the labels of any two nodes, one can determine the distance in the graph between the two nodes by looking only at the labels. A $D$-preserving distance labeling scheme only returns precise distances between pairs of nodes that are at distance at least $D$ from each other. In this paper we consider distance labeling schemes for the classical case of unweighted graphs with both directed and undirected edges. We present a $O(\frac{n}{D}\log^2 D)$ bit $D$-preserving distance labeling scheme, improving the previous bound by Bollob\'as et. al. [SIAM J. Discrete Math. 2005]. We also give an almost matching lower bound of $\Omega(\frac{n}{D})$. With our $D$-preserving distance labeling scheme as a building block, we additionally achieve the following results: 1. We present the first distance labeling scheme of size $o(n)$ for sparse graphs (and hence bounded degree graphs). This addresses an open problem by Gavoille et. al. [J. Algo. 2004], hereby separating the complexity from distance labeling in general graphs which require $\Omega(n)$ bits, Moon [Proc. of Glasgow Math. Association 1965]. 2. For approximate $r$-additive labeling schemes, that return distances within an additive error of $r$ we show a scheme of size $O\left ( \frac{n}{r} \cdot\frac{\operatorname{polylog} (r\log n)}{\log n} \right )$ for $r \ge 2$. This improves on the current best bound of $O\left(\frac{n}{r}\right)$ by Alstrup et. al. [SODA 2016] for sub-polynomial $r$, and is a generalization of a result by Gawrychowski et al. [arXiv preprint 2015] who showed this for $r=2$.Comment: A preliminary version of this paper appeared at ESA'1

Approximating the Diameter of Planar Graphs in Near Linear Time

We present a $(1+\epsilon)$-approximation algorithm running in $O(f(\epsilon)\cdot n \log^4 n)$ time for finding the diameter of an undirected planar graph with non-negative edge lengths

Linear-Space Approximate Distance Oracles for Planar, Bounded-Genus, and Minor-Free Graphs

A (1 + eps)-approximate distance oracle for a graph is a data structure that supports approximate point-to-point shortest-path-distance queries. The most relevant measures for a distance-oracle construction are: space, query time, and preprocessing time. There are strong distance-oracle constructions known for planar graphs (Thorup, JACM'04) and, subsequently, minor-excluded graphs (Abraham and Gavoille, PODC'06). However, these require Omega(eps^{-1} n lg n) space for n-node graphs. We argue that a very low space requirement is essential. Since modern computer architectures involve hierarchical memory (caches, primary memory, secondary memory), a high memory requirement in effect may greatly increase the actual running time. Moreover, we would like data structures that can be deployed on small mobile devices, such as handhelds, which have relatively small primary memory. In this paper, for planar graphs, bounded-genus graphs, and minor-excluded graphs we give distance-oracle constructions that require only O(n) space. The big O hides only a fixed constant, independent of \epsilon and independent of genus or size of an excluded minor. The preprocessing times for our distance oracle are also faster than those for the previously known constructions. For planar graphs, the preprocessing time is O(n lg^2 n). However, our constructions have slower query times. For planar graphs, the query time is O(eps^{-2} lg^2 n). For our linear-space results, we can in fact ensure, for any delta > 0, that the space required is only 1 + delta times the space required just to represent the graph itself