Abstract

Dynamic graph connectivity algorithms have been studied for many years, but typically in the most general possible setting, where the graph can evolve in completely arbitrary ways. In this paper we consider a dynamic subgraph model. We assume there is some fixed, underlying graph that can be preprocessed ahead of time. The graph is subject only to vertices and edges flipping “off ” (failing) and “on ” (recovering), where queries naturally apply to the subgraph on edges/vertices currently flipped on. This model fits most real world scenarios, where the topology of the graph in question (say a router network or road network) is constantly evolving due to temporary failures but never deviates too far from the ideal failure-free state. We present the first efficient connectivity oracle for graphs susceptible to vertex failures. Given vertices u and v and a set D of d failed vertices, we can determine if there is a path from u to v avoiding D in time polynomial in d log n. There is a tradeoff in our oracle between the space, which is roughly mn ɛ, for 0 < ɛ ≤ 1, and the polynomial query time, which depends on ɛ. If one wanted to achieve the same functionality with existing data structures (based on edge failures or twin vertex failures) the resulting connectivity oracle would either need exorbitant space (Ω(n d)) or update time Ω(dn), that is, linear in the number of vertices. Our connectivity oracle is therefore the first of its kind. As a byproduct of our oracle for vertex failures we reduce the problem of constructing an edge-failure oracle to 2D range searching over the integers. We show there is an Õ(m)-space oracle that processes any set of d failed edges in O(d 2 log log n) time and, thereafter, answers connectivity queries in O(log log n) time. Our update time is exponentially faster than a recent connectivity oracle of Pǎtra¸scu and Thorup for bounded d, but slower as a function of d.

Citations