Hardness and approximation results for packing steiner trees

We study approximation algorithms and hardness of approximation for several versions of the problem of packing Steiner trees. For packing edge-disjoint Steiner trees of undirected graphs, we show APX-hardness for four terminals. For packing Steiner-node-disjoint Steiner trees of undirected graphs, we show a logarithmic hardness result, and give an approximation guarantee ofO (√n logn), wheren denotes the number of nodes. For the directed setting (packing edge-disjoint Steiner trees of directed graphs), we show a hardness result of Θ(m ^1/3/−ɛ) and give an approximation guarantee ofO(m ^1/2/+ɛ), wherem denotes the number of edges. We have similar results for packing Steiner-node-disjoint priority Steiner trees of undirected graphs. Supported by NSERC Grant No. OGP0138432. Supported by an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship, Department of Combinatorics and Optimization at University of Waterloo, and a University start-up fund at University of Alberta.     

DNA sequencing and string learning

In laboratories the majority of large-scale DNA sequencing is done following theshotgun strategy, which is to sequence large amount of relatively short fragments randomly and then heuristically find a shortest common superstring of the fragments [26]. We study mathematical frameworks, under plausible assumptions, suitable for massive automated DNA sequencing and for analyzing DNA sequencing algorithms. We model the DNA sequencing problem as learning a string from its randomly drawn substrings. Under certain restrictions, this may be viewed as string learning in Valiant's distribution-free learning model and in this case we give an efficient learning algorithm and a quantitative bound on how many examples suffice. One major obstacle to our approach turns out to be a quite well-known open question on how to approximate a shortest common superstring of a set of strings, raised by a number of authors in the last 10 years [9], [29], [30]. We give the firstprovably good algorithm which approximates a shortest superstring of lengthn by a superstring of lengthO(n logn). The algorithm works equally well even in the presence of negative examples, i.e., when merging of some strings is prohibited. Some of the results presented in this paper appeared in theProceedings of the 31st IEEE Symposium on the Foundations of Computer Science, pp. 125–134, 1990 [21]. The first author was supported in part by NSERC Operating Grant OGP0046613. The second author was supported in part by NSERC Operating Grants OGP0036747 and OGP0046506.     

Approximation Algorithm for Bottleneck Steiner Tree Problem in the Euclidean Plane

A special case of thebottleneck Steiner tree problem in the Euclidean plane was considered in this paper. The problem has applications in the design of wireless communication networks, multifacility location, VLSI routing and network routing. For the special case which requires that there should be no edge connecting any two Steiner points in the optimal solution, a 3-restricted Steiner tree can be found indicating the existence of the performance ratio √2. In this paper, the special case of the problem is proved to beNP-hard and cannot be approximated within ratio √2. First a simple polynomial time approximation algorithm with performance ratio √2 is presented. Then based on this algorithm and the existence of the 3-restricted Steiner tree, a polynomial time approximation algorithm with performance ratio—√2+∈ is proposed, for any ∈>0. Supported partially by Shandong Province Excellent Middle-Aged and Young Scientists Encouragement Fund (Grant No.03BS004) and the Ministry of Education Study Abroad Returnees Research Start-up Fund, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.60273032).     

Two new criteria for finding Steiner hulls in Steiner tree problems

The Steiner tree problem considered in this paper is that of finding a network of minimum length connecting a given setK of terminals in a regionR of the Euclidean plane. ASteiner hull forK inR is any subregion ofR known to contain a Steiner tree forK inR. Two new criteria are given for finding Steiner hulls—one for the Steiner tree problem on plane graphs and one for the rectilinear Steiner tree problem—which strengthen known polynomial-time methods of finding Steiner hulls.This research was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Grant AFOSR-84-0140. Reproduction in whole or part is permitted for any purpose of the United States Government.     

A robust model for finding optimal evolutionary trees

Constructing evolutionary trees for species sets is a fundamental problem in computational biology. One of the standard models assumes the ability to compute distances between every pair of species, and seeks to find an edge-weighted treeT in which the distanced _ij ^T in the tree between the leaves ofT corresponding to the speciesi andj exactly equals the observed distance,d _ij . When such a tree exists, this is expressed in the biological literature by saying that the distance function or matrix isadditive, and trees can be constructed from additive distance matrices in0(n ²) time. Real distance data is hardly ever additive, and we therefore need ways of modeling the problem of finding the best-fit tree as an optimization problem.In this paper we present several natural and realistic ways of modeling the inaccuracies in the distance data. In one model we assume that we have upper and lower bounds for the distances between pairs of species and try to find an additive distance matrix between these bounds. In a second model we are given a partial matrix and asked to find if we can fill in the unspecified entries in order to make the entire matrix additive. For both of these models we also consider a more restrictive problem of finding a matrix that fits a tree which is not only additive but alsoultrametric. Ultrametric matrices correspond to trees which can be rooted so that the distance from the root to any leaf is the same. Ultrametric matrices are desirable in biology since the edge weights then indicate evolutionary time. We give polynomial-time algorithms for some of the problems while showing others to be NP-complete. We also consider various ways of fitting a given distance matrix (or a pair of upper- and lower-bound matrices) to a tree in order to minimize various criteria of error in the fit. For most criteria this optimization problem turns out to be NP-hard, while we do get polynomial-time algorithms for some.Supported by DIMACS under NSF Contract STC-88-09648.Supported by NSF Grant CCR-9108969.This work was begun while this author was visiting DIMACS in July and August 1992, and was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC04-76DP00789.     

On approximation algorithms for the terminal Steiner tree problem

The terminal Steiner tree problem is a special version of the Steiner tree problem, where a Steiner minimum tree has to be found in which all terminals are leaves. We prove that no polynomial time approximation algorithm for the terminal Steiner tree problem can achieve an approximation ratio less than (1−o(1))lnn unless NP has slightly superpolynomial time algorithms. Moreover, we present a polynomial time approximation algorithm for the metric version of this problem with a performance ratio of 2ρ, where ρ denotes the best known approximation ratio for the Steiner tree problem. This improves the previously best known approximation ratio for the metric terminal Steiner tree problem of ρ+2.     

Two probabilistic results on rectilinear steiner trees

In recent years, researchers have proven many theorems of the following form: given points distributed according to a Poisson process with intensity parameterN on the unit square, the length of the shortest spanning tree (rectilinear Steiner tree, traveling salesman tour, or some other functional) on these points is, with probability one, asymptotic to N for some constant (which is presumably different for different functionals). Though these theorems are well understood, very little is known about the constants . In this paper we prove that the constants in the cases of rectilinear spanning tree and rectilinear Steiner tree do, indeed, differ. This proof is constructive in the sense that we give a polynomial-time heuristic algorithm that produces a Steiner tree of expected length some fraction shorter than a minimum spanning tree. We continue the analysis to prove a second result: the expected value of the minimum number of Steiner points in a shortest rectilinear Steiner tree grows linearly withN.Research supported in part by NSF Grant MCS-8311422. A preliminary version of this paper appeared in theProceedings of the 18th Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, 1986.     

A note on boundingk-terminal reliability

A generalization of a theorem of Lomonosov and Polesskii is proved, which provides a novel method for determining upper bounds on the probability that a graph contains a Steiner tree (k-terminal reliability).This research was supported by NSERC Canada under Grant No. A0579.     

On the terminal Steiner tree problem

We investigate a practical variant of the well-known graph Steiner tree problem. In this variant, every target vertex is required to be a leaf vertex in the solution Steiner tree. We present hardness results for this variant as well as a polynomial time approximation algorithm with performance ratio ρ+2, where ρ is the best-known approximation ratio for the graph Steiner tree problem.     

A note on the terminal Steiner tree problem

In 2002, Lin and Xue [Inform. Process. Lett. 84 (2002) 103-107] introduced a variant of the graph Steiner tree problem, in which each terminal vertex is required to be a leaf in the solution Steiner tree. They presented a ρ+2 approximation algorithm, where ρ is the approximation ratio of the best known efficient algorithm for the regular graph Steiner tree problem. In this note, we derive a simplified algorithm with an improved approximation ratio of 2ρ (currently ρ≈1.550, see [SODA 2000, 2000, pp. 770-790]).     

Canonical Forms and Algorithms for Steiner Trees in Uniform Orientation Metrics

We present some fundamental structural properties for minimum length networks (known as Steiner minimum trees) interconnecting a given set of points in an environment in which edge segments are restricted to λ uniformly oriented directions. We show that the edge segments of any full component of such a tree contain a total of at most four directions if λ is not a multiple of 3, or six directions if λ is a multiple of 3. This result allows us to develop useful canonical forms for these full components. The structural properties of these Steiner minimum trees are then used to resolve an important open problem in the area: does there exist a polynomial time algorithm for constructing a Steiner minimum tree if the topology of the tree is known? We obtain a simple linear time algorithm for constructing a Steiner minimum tree for any given set of points and a given Steiner topology.     

Equispreading tree in Manhattan distance

The equispreading tree on the plane with Manhattan distance, which is a Steiner tree such that all paths from the root to all leaves have the same length, is analyzed. This problem is not only fundamental in computational geometry but also critical for equidistant routings in VLSI clock design. Several characteristics for the trees are discussed together with an algorithm constructing equispreading trees in the bottom-up fashion. This algorithm achieves linear time and space complexity with respect to the number of leaves, and minimizes the path length from the root to leaves. Furthermore, this paper shows that the shortest-path-length equispreading trees are related to the smallest enclosing circles in Manhattan distance.     

On greedy heuristics for steiner minimum trees

We disprove a conjecture of Shor and Smith on a greedy heuristic for the Steiner minimum tree by showing that the length ratio between the Steiner minimum tree and the greedy tree constructed by their method for the same set of points can be arbitrarily close to3/2. We also propose a new conjecture.Supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant CCR-9208913.     

Improved Approximation Algorithms for the Quality of Service Multicast Tree Problem

The Quality of Service Multicast Tree Problem is a generalization of the Steiner tree problem which appears in the context of multimedia multicast and network design. In this generalization, each node possesses a rate and the cost of an edge with length l in a Steiner tree T connecting the source to non-zero rate nodes is l · r_e, where r_e is the maximum node rate in the component of T-{e} that does not contain the source. The best previously known approximation ratios for this problem (based on the best known approximation factor of 1.549 for the Steiner tree problem in networks) are 2.066 for the case of two non-zero rates and 4.212 for the case of an unbounded number of rates. In this paper we give improved approximation algorithms with ratios of 1.960 and 3.802, respectively. When the minimum spanning tree heuristic is used for finding approximate Steiner trees, then the previously best known approximation ratios of 2.667 for two non-zero rates and 5.542 for an unbounded number of rates are reduced to 2.414 and 4.311, respectively.     

On finding optimal and near-optimal lineal spanning trees

The search for good lineal, or depth-first, spanning trees is an important aspect in the implementation of a wide assortment of graph algorithms. We consider the complexity of findingoptimal lineal spanning trees under various notions of optimality. In particular, we show that several natural problems, such as constructing a shortest or a tallest lineal tree, are NP-hard. We also address the issue of polynomial-time, near-optimization strategies for these difficult problems, showing that efficient absolute approximation algorithms cannot exist unlessP = NP.This author's research was supported in part by the Sandia University Research Program and by the National Science Foundation under Grant M IP-8603879.This author's research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grants ECS-8403859 and MIP-8603879.     

近乎最佳的Manhattan型Steiner树近似算法

求解最佳的Manhattan型Steiner树问题(minimum rectilinear Steiner tree,简记为MRST问题)是在VLSI布线、网络通信中所遇到的组合优化问题,同时也是一个NP-难解问题.该文给出对该问题的O(n²)时间复杂性的近似算法.该算法在最坏情况下的近似比严格小于3/2.计算机实验结果表明,所求得的支撑树的平均费用与最佳算法的平均费用仅相差0.8%.该算法稍加修改,可应用到三维或多维的Manhattan空间对Steiner问题求解,且易于在并行与分布式环境下编程实现     

A practical algorithm for the minimum rectilinear steiner tree

An O(n^2) time approximation algorithm for the minimum rectilinear Steiner tree is proposed.The approximation ratio of the algorithm is strictly less than 1.5.The computing performances show the costs of the spanning trees produced by the algorithm are only 0.8% away from the optimal ones.     

Co-evolutionary algorithms to solve hierarchized Steiner tree problems in telecommunication networks

This study investigates a hierarchized Steiner tree problem in telecommunication networks. In such networks, users must be connected to capacitated hubs. Additionally, selected hubs must be connected to each other and to extra hubs, if necessary, by considering the latency of the resultant network. A connection between hubs can be considered to be a Steiner tree. This Steiner tree problem is modeled as a bi-level mathematical programming problem that considers two decision levels. In the upper-level, the allocation of users to hubs is performed to minimize the total network connection cost. The lower-level minimizes the user latency concerning the information that flows through the capacitated hubs. Further, two co-evolutionary schemes are developed to solve this bi-level model. The first scheme is an individual–population approach, whereas the second scheme is the traditional population–population approach. The first proposed algorithm exploits the structure of the problem by employing parallel computing in one of the populations. Numerical results depict the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms when the lower-level problem cannot be optimally solved efficiently. Furthermore, the advantages of the proposed schemes over an evolutionary one are exhibited. Finally, the hybridization of both co-evolutionary schemes is implemented to improve the semi-feasible solutions obtained by the second scheme, showing its effectiveness to solve the problem.     

Bounded time-stamps

Summary Time-stamps are labels which a system adds to its data items. These labels enable the system to keep track of the temporal precedence relations among its data elements. Many distributed protocols and some applications use the natural numbers as time-stamps. The natural numbers however are not useful for bounded protocols. In this paper we develop a theory ofbounded time-stamps. Time-stamp schemes are defined and the complexity of their implementation is analyzed. This indicates a direction for developing a general tool for converting time-stamp based protocols to bounded protocols. Amos Israeli received his B.Sc. in Mathematics and Physics from Hebrew University in 1976, and his M.Sc. and D.Sc. in Computer Science from the Weizmann Institute in 1980 and the Technion in 1985, respectively. Currently he is a senior lecturer at the Tlectrical Engineering Department at the Technion. Prior to this he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Aiken Computation Laboratory at Harvard. His research interests are in Parallel and Distributed Computing and in Robotics. In particular he has worked on the design and analysis of Wait-Free and Self-Stabilizing distributed protocols. Ming Li received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Wayne State University in 1980 and Cornell University 1985, respectively. Currently he is an associate professor at the Computer Science Department at the University of Waterloo. His research interests are in Theory of Computing, Kolmogorov Complexity, and Machine Learning.Supported in part by the Weizmann fellowship and NSF Grant DCR-86-00379Supported in part by ONR Grant N00014-85-k-0445 and Army Research Office Grant DAAL03-86-K-0171 at Harvard University, by NSF Grant kDCR-86-06366 at Ohio State University, and by NSERC Operating Grant OGP0036747. Most of this work was done when the authors were at Aiken Computation Laboratory at Harvard University. The authors also acknowledge the hospitality of the computer science department at York University, Canada     

一种含浮动端点的斯坦纳树的构造算法

在集成电路的自动布图技术中，在完成布局过程，即各模块（或子电路单元）的拓扑位置确定以后，布线需要完成各电路模块之间的连接。斯坦纳树的构造问题可以应用于总体布线；如果考虑已有单元或连线的障碍，它也可以应用于详细布线。