A Simple Local-Control Approximation Algorithm for Multicommodity Flow (1993)
| Venue: | In Proceedings of the 34th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science |
| Citations: | 58 - 6 self |
BibTeX
@INPROCEEDINGS{Awerbuch93asimple,
author = {Baruch Awerbuch and Tom Leighton},
title = {A Simple Local-Control Approximation Algorithm for Multicommodity Flow},
booktitle = {In Proceedings of the 34th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science},
year = {1993},
pages = {459--468}
}
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Abstract
In this paper, we describe a very simple (1 + ")- approximation algorithm for the multicommodity flow problem. The algorithm runs in time that is polynomial in N (the number of nodes in the network) and ffl \Gamma1 (the closeness of the approximation to optimal). The algorithm is remarkable in that it is much simpler than all known polynomial time flow algorithms (including algorithms for the special case of one-commodity flow). In particular, the algorithm does not rely on augmenting paths, shortest paths, min-cost paths, or similar techniques to push flow through a network. In fact, no explicit attempt is ever made to push flow towards a sink during the algorithm. Because the algorithm is so simple, it can be applied to a variety of problems for which centralized decision making and flow planning is not possible. For example, the algorithm can be easily implemented with local control in a distributed network and it can be made tolerant to link failures. In addition, the algorithm ...
