1,438 research outputs found
Solving Set Constraint Satisfaction Problems using ROBDDs
In this paper we present a new approach to modeling finite set domain
constraint problems using Reduced Ordered Binary Decision Diagrams (ROBDDs). We
show that it is possible to construct an efficient set domain propagator which
compactly represents many set domains and set constraints using ROBDDs. We
demonstrate that the ROBDD-based approach provides unprecedented flexibility in
modeling constraint satisfaction problems, leading to performance improvements.
We also show that the ROBDD-based modeling approach can be extended to the
modeling of integer and multiset constraint problems in a straightforward
manner. Since domain propagation is not always practical, we also show how to
incorporate less strict consistency notions into the ROBDD framework, such as
set bounds, cardinality bounds and lexicographic bounds consistency. Finally,
we present experimental results that demonstrate the ROBDD-based solver
performs better than various more conventional constraint solvers on several
standard set constraint problems
Layered Label Propagation: A MultiResolution Coordinate-Free Ordering for Compressing Social Networks
We continue the line of research on graph compression started with WebGraph,
but we move our focus to the compression of social networks in a proper sense
(e.g., LiveJournal): the approaches that have been used for a long time to
compress web graphs rely on a specific ordering of the nodes (lexicographical
URL ordering) whose extension to general social networks is not trivial. In
this paper, we propose a solution that mixes clusterings and orders, and devise
a new algorithm, called Layered Label Propagation, that builds on previous work
on scalable clustering and can be used to reorder very large graphs (billions
of nodes). Our implementation uses overdecomposition to perform aggressively on
multi-core architecture, making it possible to reorder graphs of more than 600
millions nodes in a few hours. Experiments performed on a wide array of web
graphs and social networks show that combining the order produced by the
proposed algorithm with the WebGraph compression framework provides a major
increase in compression with respect to all currently known techniques, both on
web graphs and on social networks. These improvements make it possible to
analyse in main memory significantly larger graphs
Generalizing Boolean Satisfiability III: Implementation
This is the third of three papers describing ZAP, a satisfiability engine
that substantially generalizes existing tools while retaining the performance
characteristics of modern high-performance solvers. The fundamental idea
underlying ZAP is that many problems passed to such engines contain rich
internal structure that is obscured by the Boolean representation used; our
goal has been to define a representation in which this structure is apparent
and can be exploited to improve computational performance. The first paper
surveyed existing work that (knowingly or not) exploited problem structure to
improve the performance of satisfiability engines, and the second paper showed
that this structure could be understood in terms of groups of permutations
acting on individual clauses in any particular Boolean theory. We conclude the
series by discussing the techniques needed to implement our ideas, and by
reporting on their performance on a variety of problem instances
Filtering Algorithms for the Multiset Ordering Constraint
Constraint programming (CP) has been used with great success to tackle a wide
variety of constraint satisfaction problems which are computationally
intractable in general. Global constraints are one of the important factors
behind the success of CP. In this paper, we study a new global constraint, the
multiset ordering constraint, which is shown to be useful in symmetry breaking
and searching for leximin optimal solutions in CP. We propose efficient and
effective filtering algorithms for propagating this global constraint. We show
that the algorithms are sound and complete and we discuss possible extensions.
We also consider alternative propagation methods based on existing constraints
in CP toolkits. Our experimental results on a number of benchmark problems
demonstrate that propagating the multiset ordering constraint via a dedicated
algorithm can be very beneficial
A study on set variable representations in constraint programming
Il lavoro presentato in questa tesi si colloca nel contesto della programmazione con vincoli, un paradigma per modellare e risolvere problemi di ricerca combinatoria che richiedono di trovare soluzioni in presenza di vincoli. Una vasta parte di questi problemi trova naturale formulazione attraverso il linguaggio delle variabili insiemistiche. Dal momento che il dominio di tali variabili può essere esponenziale nel numero di elementi, una rappresentazione esplicita è spesso non praticabile.
Recenti studi si sono quindi focalizzati nel trovare modi efficienti per rappresentare tali variabili.
Pertanto si è soliti rappresentare questi domini mediante l'uso di approssimazioni definite tramite intervalli (d'ora in poi rappresentazioni), specificati da un limite inferiore e un limite superiore secondo un'appropriata relazione d'ordine.
La recente evoluzione della ricerca sulla programmazione con vincoli sugli insiemi ha chiaramente indicato che la combinazione di diverse rappresentazioni permette di raggiungere prestazioni di ordini di grandezza superiori rispetto alle tradizionali tecniche di codifica. Numerose proposte sono state fatte volgendosi in questa direzione. Questi lavori si differenziano su come è mantenuta la coerenza tra le diverse rappresentazioni e su come i vincoli vengono propagati al fine di ridurre lo spazio di ricerca. Sfortunatamente non esiste alcun strumento formale per paragonare queste combinazioni.
Il principale obiettivo di questo lavoro è quello di fornire tale strumento, nel quale definiamo precisamente la nozione di combinazione di rappresentazioni facendo emergere gli aspetti comuni che hanno caratterizzato i lavori precedenti. In particolare identifichiamo due tipi possibili di combinazioni, una forte ed una debole, definendo le nozioni di coerenza agli estremi sui vincoli e sincronizzazione tra rappresentazioni. Il nostro studio propone alcune interessanti intuizioni sulle combinazioni esistenti, evidenziandone i limiti e svelando alcune sorprese. Inoltre forniamo un'analisi di complessità della sincronizzazione tra minlex, una rappresentazione in grado di propagare in maniera ottimale vincoli lessicografici, e le principali rappresentazioni esistenti
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