The Lovasz Local Lemma due to Erdos and Lovasz is a powerful tool in proving the existence of rare events. We present an extension of this lemma, which works well when the event to be shown to exist is a conjunction of individual events, each of which asserts that a random variable does not deviate much from its mean. As applications, we consider two classes of NP-hard integer programs: minimax and covering integer programs. A key technique, randomized rounding of linear relaxations, was developed by Raghavan and Thompson to derive good approximation algorithms for such problems. We use our extension of the Local Lemma to prove that randomized rounding produces, with non-zero probability, much better feasible solutions than known before, if the constraint matrices of these integer programs are column-sparse (e.g., routing using short paths, problems on hypergraphs with small dimension degree). This complements certain well-known results from discrepancy theory. We also generalize the method of pessimistic estimators due to Raghavan, to obtain constructive (algorithmic) versions of our results for covering integer programs.
To see what problems MIPs model, note, from constraints (i) and (iii) of MIPs, that for all @math , any feasible solution will make the set @math have precisely one 1, with all other elements being 0; MIPs thus model many choice'' scenarios. Consider, e.g., global routing in VLSI gate arrays @cite_22 . Given are an undirected graph @math , a function @math , and @math , a set @math of paths in @math , each connecting @math to @math ; we must connect each @math with @math using exactly one path from @math , so that the maximum number of times that any edge in @math is used for, is minimized--an MIP formulation is obvious, with @math being the indicator variable for picking the @math th path in @math . This problem, the vector-selection problem of @cite_22 , and the discrepancy-type problems of , are all modeled by MIPs; many MIP instances, e.g., global routing, are NP-hard.
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Given a directed graph @math and a list @math of terminal pairs, the Directed Steiner Network problem asks for a minimum-cost subgraph of @math that contains a directed @math path for every @math . The special case Directed Steiner Tree (when we ask for paths from a root @math to terminals @math ) is known to be fixed-parameter tractable parameterized by the number of terminals, while the special case Strongly Connected Steiner Subgraph (when we ask for a path from every @math to every other @math ) is known to be W[1]-hard. We systematically explore the complexity landscape of directed Steiner problems to fully understand which other special cases are FPT or W[1]-hard. Formally, if @math is a class of directed graphs, then we look at the special case of Directed Steiner Network where the list @math of requests form a directed graph that is a member of @math . Our main result is a complete characterization of the classes @math resulting in fixed-parameter tractable special cases: we show that if every pattern in @math has the combinatorial property of being "transitively equivalent to a bounded-length caterpillar with a bounded number of extra edges," then the problem is FPT, and it is W[1]-hard for every recursively enumerable @math not having this property. This complete dichotomy unifies and generalizes the known results showing that Directed Steiner Tree is FPT [Dreyfus and Wagner, Networks 1971], @math -Root Steiner Tree is FPT for constant @math [Such 'y, WG 2016], Strongly Connected Steiner Subgraph is W[1]-hard [, SIAM J. Discrete Math. 2011], and Directed Steiner Network is solvable in polynomial-time for constant number of terminals [Feldman and Ruhl, SIAM J. Comput. 2006], and moreover reveals a large continent of tractable cases that were not known before. We study a new two-stage version of an s-t path problem, which we call adaptable robust connection path (ARCP). Given an undirected graph G=(V,E), two vertices s,t@?V and two integers f,r@?Z"+, ARCP asks to find a set S@?E of minimum cardinality which connects s and t, such that for any 'failure set' F@?E with |F|@?f, the set of edges S@?F can be completed to a set which connects s and t by adding at most r edges from E@?F. We show the problem is NP-hard, and there is no polynomial-time @a-approximation algorithm for the problem for @a<2 unless P=NP. For f=r=1 we provide an exact polynomial algorithm, and for f=1 and arbitrary r we provide a polynomial 2-approximation algorithm. A characterization of the feasible set is provided for f=1 and several links are established between ARCP and other combinatorial optimization problems, including a new combinatorial optimization problem, the minimum reduced cost cycle problem whose complexity is open. Given an arc-weighted directed graph G = (V, A, spl lscr ) and a pair of nodes s, t, we seek to find an s-t walk of length at most B that maximizes some given function f of the set of nodes visited by the walk. The simplest case is when we seek to maximize the number of nodes visited: this is called the orienteering problem. Our main result is a quasi-polynomial time algorithm that yields an O(log OPT) approximation for this problem when f is a given submodular set function. We then extend it to the case when a node v is counted as visited only if the walk reaches v in its time window [R(v), D(v)]. We apply the algorithm to obtain several new results. First, we obtain an O(log OPT) approximation for a generalization of the orienteering problem in which the profit for visiting each node may vary arbitrarily with time. This captures the time window problem considered earlier for which, even in undirected graphs, the best approximation ratio known [Bansal, (2004)] is O(log sup 2 OPT). The second application is an O(log sup 2 k) approximation for the k-TSP problem in directed graphs (satisfying asymmetric triangle inequality). This is the first non-trivial approximation algorithm for this problem. The third application is an O(log sup 2 k) approximation (in quasi-poly time) for the group Steiner problem in undirected graphs where k is the number of groups. This improves earlier ratios (Garg, ) by a logarithmic factor and almost matches the inapproximability threshold on trees (Halperin and Krauthgamer, 2003). This connection to group Steiner trees also enables us to prove that the problem we consider is hard to approximate to a ratio better than spl Omega (log sup 1- spl epsi OPT), even in undirected graphs. Even though our algorithm runs in quasi-poly time, we believe that the implications for the approximability of several basic optimization problems are interesting. We study undirected networks with edge costs that satisfy the triangle inequality. Let @math denote the number of nodes. We present an @math -approximation algorithm for a generalization of the metric-cost subset @math -node-connectivity problem. Our approximation guarantee is proved via lower bounds that apply to the simple edge-connectivity version of the problem, where the requirements are for edge-disjoint paths rather than for openly node-disjoint paths. A corollary is that, for metric costs and for each @math , there exists a @math -node connected graph whose cost is within a factor of @math of the cost of any simple @math -edge connected graph. Based on our @math -approximation algorithm, we present an @math -approximation algorithm for the metric-cost node-connectivity survivable network design problem, where @math denotes the maximum requirement over all pairs of nodes. Our results contrast with the case of edge costs of 0 or 1, where Kortsarz, Krauthgamer, and Lee. [SIAM J. Comput., 33 (2004), pp. 704-720] recently proved, assuming NP @math DTIME( @math ), a hardness-of-approximation lower bound of @math for the subset @math -node-connectivity problem, where @math denotes a small positive number. Given a directed graph G=(V,A) with a non-negative weight (length) function on its arcs w:A→ℝ+ and two terminals s,t∈V, our goal is to destroy all short directed paths from s to t in G by eliminating some arcs of A. This is known as the short paths interdiction problem. We consider several versions of it, and in each case analyze two subcases: total limited interdiction, when a fixed number k of arcs can be removed, and node-wise limited interdiction, when for each node v∈V a fixed number k(v) of out-going arcs can be removed. Our results indicate that the latter subcase is always easier than the former one. In particular, we show that the short paths node-wise interdiction problem can be efficiently solved by an extension of Dijkstra’s algorithm. In contrast, the short paths total interdiction problem is known to be NP-hard. We strengthen this hardness result by deriving the following inapproximability bounds: Given k, it is NP-hard to approximate within a factor c<2 the maximum s–t distance d(s,t) obtainable by removing (at most) k arcs from G. Furthermore, given d, it is NP-hard to approximate within a factor @math the minimum number of arcs which has to be removed to guarantee d(s,t)≥d. Finally, we also show that the same inapproximability bounds hold for undirected graphs and or node elimination. The well-known @math -disjoint path problem ( @math -DPP) asks for pairwise vertex-disjoint paths between @math specified pairs of vertices @math in a given graph, if they exist. The decision version of the shortest @math -DPP asks for the length of the shortest (in terms of total length) such paths. Similarly the search and counting versions ask for one such and the number of such shortest set of paths, respectively. We restrict attention to the shortest @math -DPP instances on undirected planar graphs where all sources and sinks lie on a single face or on a pair of faces. We provide efficient sequential and parallel algorithms for the search versions of the problem answering one of the main open questions raised by Colin de Verdiere and Schrijver for the general one-face problem. We do so by providing a randomised @math algorithm along with an @math time randomised sequential algorithm. We also obtain deterministic algorithms with similar resource bounds for the counting and search versions. In contrast, previously, only the sequential complexity of decision and search versions of the "well-ordered" case has been studied. For the one-face case, sequential versions of our routines have better running times for constantly many terminals. In addition, the earlier best known sequential algorithms (e.g. ) were randomised while ours are also deterministic. The algorithms are based on a bijection between a shortest @math -tuple of disjoint paths in the given graph and cycle covers in a related digraph. This allows us to non-trivially modify established techniques relating counting cycle covers to the determinant. We further need to do a controlled inclusion-exclusion to produce a polynomial sum of determinants such that all "bad" cycle covers cancel out in the sum allowing us to count "good" cycle covers. We consider the following network design problem. We are given an undirected graph G=(V,E) with edges costs c(e) and a set of terminal nodes W. A hose demand matrix for W is any symmetric matrix [Dij] such that for each i, ∑ j ≠ i Dij ≤ 1. We must compute the minimum cost edge capacities that are able to support the oblivious routing of every hose matrix in the network. An oblivious routing template, in this context, is a simple path Pij for each pair i,j ∈ W. Given such a template, if we are to route a demand matrix D, then for each i,j we send Dij units of flow along each Pij. and obtained a 2-approximation for this problem, using a solution template in the form of a tree. It has been widely asked and subsequently conjectured [Italiano 2006] that this solution actually results in the optimal capacity for the single path VPN design problem; this has become known as the VPN conjecture. The conjecture has previously been proven for some restricted classes of graphs [Hurkens 2005, Grandoni 2007, Fiorini 2007]. Our main theorem establishes that this conjecture is true in general graphs. This also gives the first polynomial time algorithm for the single path VPN problem. We also show that the multipath version of the conjecture is false. During recent days, the large problem space of very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits has led global routing problem to a NP Complete one. With the advent of three dimensional integrated circuits (3D IC) the problem has become more complex. In this paper, a multi-objective global routing technique is formulated using fuzzy logic to get rid of the limitations of deterministic approaches. During global routing the decision is taken from a fuzzy logic expert system depending upon some generated pre-routing guiding information. Proposed approach is mainly focused on the modern generation 3D ICs. This primary work is mainly incorporated in the standard cell design for 3D ICs. A two-pin global router tool is designed based on the proposed algorithm resulting 85-97 routability in negligible time for ISPD'98 benchmarks. In the survivable network design problem (SNDP), given an undirected graph and values r sub ij for each pair of vertices i and j, we attempt to find a minimum-cost subgraph such that there are r sub ij disjoint paths between vertices i and j. In the edge connected version of this problem (EC-SNDP), these paths must be edge-disjoint. In the vertex connected version of the problem (VC-SNDP), the paths must be vertex disjoint. K. (1999) propose a version of the problem intermediate in difficulty to these two, called the element connectivity problem (ELC-SNDP, or ELC). These variants of SNDP are all known to be NP-hard. The best known approximation algorithm for the EC-SNDP has performance guarantee of 2 (K. Jain, 2001), and iteratively rounds solutions to a linear programming relaxation of the problem. ELC has a primal-dual O (log k) approximation algorithm, where k=max sub i,j r sub ij . VC-SNDP is not known to have a non-trivial approximation algorithm; however, recently L. Fleischer (2001) has shown how to extend the technique of K. Jain ( 2001) to give a 2-approximation algorithm in the case that r sub ij spl isin 0, 1, 2 . She also shows that the same techniques will not work for VC-SNDP for more general values of r sub ij . The authors show that these techniques can be extended to a 2-approximation algorithm for ELC. This gives the first constant approximation algorithm for a general survivable network design problem which allows node failures. In the distributed all-pairs shortest paths problem (APSP), every node in the weighted undirected distributed network (the CONGEST model) needs to know the distance from every other node using least number of communication rounds (typically called time complexity ). The problem admits @math -approximation @math -time algorithm and a nearly-tight @math lower bound [Nanongkai, STOC'14; Lenzen and Patt-Shamir PODC'15] @math , @math and @math hide polylogarithmic factors. Note that the lower bounds also hold even in the unweighted case and in the weighted case with polynomial approximation ratios LenzenP_podc13,HolzerW12,PelegRT12,Nanongkai-STOC14 . . For the exact case, Elkin [STOC'17] presented an @math time bound, which was later improved to @math [Huang, Nanongkai, Saranurak FOCS'17]. It was shown that any super-linear lower bound (in @math ) requires a new technique [Censor-Hillel, Khoury, Paz, DISC'17], but otherwise it remained widely open whether there exists a @math -time algorithm for the exact case, which would match the best possible approximation algorithm. This paper resolves this question positively: we present a randomized (Las Vegas) @math -time algorithm, matching the lower bound up to polylogarithmic factors. Like the previous @math bound, our result works for directed graphs with zero (and even negative) edge weights. In addition to the improved running time, our algorithm works in a more general setting than that required by the previous @math bound; in our setting (i) the communication is only along edge directions (as opposed to bidirectional), and (ii) edge weights are arbitrary (as opposed to integers in 1, 2, ... poly(n) ). ... The distributed single-source shortest paths problem is one of the most fundamental and central problems in the message-passing distributed computing. Classical Bellman-Ford algorithm solves it in @math time, where @math is the number of vertices in the input graph @math . Peleg and Rubinovich (FOCS'99) showed a lower bound of @math for this problem, where @math is the hop-diameter of @math . Whether or not this problem can be solved in @math time when @math is relatively small is a major notorious open question. Despite intensive research LP13,N14,HKN15,EN16,BKKL16 that yielded near-optimal algorithms for the approximate variant of this problem, no progress was reported for the original problem. In this paper we answer this question in the affirmative. We devise an algorithm that requires @math time, for @math , and @math time, for larger @math . This running time is sublinear in @math in almost the entire range of parameters, specifically, for @math . For the all-pairs shortest paths problem, our algorithm requires @math time, regardless of the value of @math . We also devise the first algorithm with non-trivial complexity guarantees for computing exact shortest paths in the multipass semi-streaming model of computation. From the technical viewpoint, our algorithm computes a hopset @math of a skeleton graph @math of @math without first computing @math itself. We then conduct a Bellman-Ford exploration in @math , while computing the required edges of @math on the fly. As a result, our algorithm computes exactly those edges of @math that it really needs, rather than computing approximately the entire @math . The decremental single-source shortest paths (SSSP) problem concerns maintaining the distances between a given source node s to every node in an n-node m-edge graph G undergoing edge deletions. While its static counterpart can be easily solved in near-linear time, this decremental problem is much more challenging even in the undirected unweighted case. In this case, the classic O(mn) total update time of Even and Shiloach (JACM 1981) has been the fastest known algorithm for three decades. With the loss of a (1 + aepsi;)-approximation factor, the running time was recently improved to O(n2+o(1)) by Bernstein and Roditty (SODA 2011), and more recently to O(n1.8+o(1) + m1+o(1)) by Henzinger, Krinninger, and Nanongkai (SODA 2014). In this paper, we finally bring the running time of this case down to near-linear: We give a (1 + aepsi;)-approximation algorithm with O(m1+o(1)) total update time, thus obtaining near-linear time. Moreover, we obtain O(m1+o(1)log W) time for the weighted case, where the edge weights are integers from 1 to W. The only prior work on weighted graphs in o(mn log W) time is the O(mn0.986 log W)-time algorithm by Henzinger, Krinninger, and Nanongkai (STOC 2014) which works for the general weighted directed case. In contrast to the previous results which rely on maintaining a sparse emulator, our algorithm relies on maintaining a so-called sparse (d, aepsi;)-hop set introduced by Cohen (JACM 2000) in the PRAM literature. A (d, aepsi;)-hop set of a graph G = (V, E) is a set E' of weighted edges such that the distance between any pair of nodes in G can be (1 + aepsi;)-approximated by their d-hop distance (given by a path containing at most d edges) on G'=(V, E a#x222A; E'). Our algorithm can maintain an (no(1), aepsi;)-hop set of near-linear size in near-linear time under edge deletions. It is the first of its kind to the best of our knowledge. To maintain the distances on this hop set, we develop a monotone bounded-hop Even-Shiloach tree. It results from extending and combining the monotone Even-Shiloach tree of Henzinger, Krinninger, and Nanongkai (FOCS 2013) with the bounded-hop SSSP technique of Bernstein (STOC 2013). These two new tools might be of independent interest. We study wireless ad hoc networks with a large number of nodes. We first focus on a network of n immobile nodes, each with a destination node chosen in random. We develop a scheme under which, in the absence of fading, the network can provide each node with a traffic rate spl lambda sub 1 (n)=K sub 1 (nlog n) sup -1 2 . This result was first shown in J. Hightower and G. Borriello (2001) under a similar setting, however the proof presented here is shorter and uses only basic probability tools. We then proceed to show that, under a general model of fading, each node can send data to its destination with a rate spl lambda sub 2 (n)=K sub 2 n sup -1 sup 2 (log n) sup -3 2 . Next, we extend our formulation to study the effects of node mobility. We first develop a simple scheme under which each of the a mobile nodes can send data to a randomly chosen destination node with a rate spl lambda sub 3 (n)=K sub 3 n sup -1 2 (log n) sup -3 2 , and with a fixed upper bound on the packet delay d sub max that does not depend on n. We subsequently develop a scheme under which each of the nodes can send data to its destination with a rate spl lambda sub 4 (n)=K sub 4 n sup (d-1) 2 (log n) sup -5 2 provided that nodes are willing to tolerate packet delays smaller than d sub max (n)<K sub 5 n sup d , where 0<d<1. With both schemes, a general model of fading is assumed. In addition, nodes require no global topology or routing information, and only need to coordinate locally. The above results hold for an appropriate choice of values for the constants K sub i , and with probability approaching 1 as the number of nodes n approaches infinity. We present algorithmic and hardness results for network design problems with degree or order constraints. The first problem we consider is the Survivable Network Design problem with degree constraints on vertices. The objective is to find a minimum cost subgraph which satisfies connectivity requirements between vertices and also degree upper bounds @math on the vertices. This includes the well-studied Minimum Bounded Degree Spanning Tree problem as a special case. Our main result is a @math -approximation algorithm for the edge-connectivity Survivable Network Design problem with degree constraints, where the cost of the returned solution is at most twice the cost of an optimum solution (satisfying the degree bounds) and the degree of each vertex @math is at most @math . This implies the first constant factor (bicriteria) approximation algorithms for many degree constrained network design problems, including the Minimum Bounded Degree Steiner Forest problem. Our results also extend to directed graphs and provide the first constant factor (bicriteria) approximation algorithms for the Minimum Bounded Degree Arborescence problem and the Minimum Bounded Degree Strongly @math -Edge-Connected Subgraph problem. In contrast, we show that the vertex-connectivity Survivable Network Design problem with degree constraints is hard to approximate, even when the cost of every edge is zero. A striking aspect of our algorithmic result is its simplicity. It is based on the iterative relaxation method, which is an extension of Jain's iterative rounding method. This provides an elegant and unifying algorithmic framework for a broad range of network design problems. We also study the problem of finding a minimum cost @math -edge-connected subgraph with at least @math vertices, which we call the @math -subgraph problem. This generalizes some well-studied classical problems such as the @math -MST and the minimum cost @math -edge-connected subgraph problems. We give a polylogarithmic approximation for the @math -subgraph problem. However, by relating it to the Densest @math -Subgraph problem, we provide evidence that the @math -subgraph problem might be hard to approximate for arbitrary @math . We study approximate distributed solutions to the weighted all-pairs-shortest-paths (APSP) problem in the CONGEST model. We obtain the following results. @math A deterministic @math -approximation to APSP in @math rounds. This improves over the best previously known algorithm, by both derandomizing it and by reducing the running time by a @math factor. In many cases, routing schemes involve relabeling, i.e., assigning new names to nodes and require that these names are used in distance and routing queries. It is known that relabeling is necessary to achieve running times of @math . In the relabeling model, we obtain the following results. @math A randomized @math -approximation to APSP, for any integer @math , running in @math rounds, where @math is the hop diameter of the network. This algorithm simplifies the best previously known result and reduces its approximation ratio from @math to @math . Also, the new algorithm uses uses labels of asymptotically optimal size, namely @math bits. @math A randomized @math -approximation to APSP, for any integer @math , running in time @math and producing compact routing tables of size @math . The node lables consist of @math bits. This improves on the approximation ratio of @math for tables of that size achieved by the best previously known algorithm, which terminates faster, in @math rounds. We introduce a new method for Rectilinear Steiner Tree (RST) construction in a graph, using answer set programming. This method provides a formal representation of the problem as a logic program whose answer sets correspond to solutions. The answer sets for a logic program can be computed by special systems called answer set solvers. We describe the method for RST construction in the context of VLSI routing where multiple pins in a given placement of a chip are connected by an RST. Our method is different from the existing methods mainly in three ways. First, it always correctly determines whether a given RST routing problem is solvable, and it always produces a solution if one exists. Second, some enhancements of the basic problem, in which lengths of wires connecting the source pin to sink pins are restricted, can be easily represented by adding some rules. Our method guarantees to find a tree if one exists, even when the total wire length is not minimum. Third, routing problems with the presence of obstacles can be solved. With this approach, we have computed solutions to some RST routing problems using the answer set solver CMODELS. We study the approximability of multiway partitioning problems, examples of which include Multiway Cut, Node-weighted Multiway Cut, and Hypergraph Multiway Cut. We investigate these problems from the point of view of two possible generalizations: as Min-CSPs, and as Submodular Multiway Partition problems. These two generalizations lead to two natural relaxations that we call respectively the Local Distribution LP, and the Lovasz relaxation. The Local Distribution LP is generally stronger than the Lovasz relaxation, but applicable only to Min-CSP with predicates of constant size. The relaxations coincide in some cases such as Multiway Cut where they are both equivalent to the CKR relaxation. We show that the Lovasz relaxation gives a (2--2 k)-approximation for Submodular Multiway Partition with k terminals, improving a recent 2-approximation [2]. We prove that this factor is optimal in two senses: (1) A (2--2 k -- e)-approximation for Submodular Multiway Partition with k terminals would require exponentially many value queries (in the oracle model), or imply NP = RP (for certain explicit submodular functions). (2) For Hypergraph Multiway Cut and Node-weighted Multiway Cut with k terminals, both special cases of Submodular Multiway Partition, we prove that a (2--2 k -- e)-approximation is NP-hard, assuming the Unique Games Conjecture. Both our hardness results are more general: (1) We show that the notion of symmetry gap, previously used for submodular maximization problems [19, 6], also implies hardness results for submodular minimization problems. (2) Assuming the Unique Games Conjecture, we show that the Local Distribution LP gives an optimal approximation for every Min-CSP that includes the Not-Equal predicate. Finally, we connect the two hardness techniques by proving that the integrality gap of the Local Distribution LP coincides with the symmetry gap of the multilinear relaxation (for a related instance). This shows that the appearance of the same hardness threshold for a Min-CSP and the related submodular minimization problem is not a coincidence. This work presents a classification of weak models of distributed computing. We focus on deterministic distributed algorithms, and study models of computing that are weaker versions of the widely-studied port-numbering model. In the port-numbering model, a node of degree @math d receives messages through @math d input ports and sends messages through @math d output ports, both numbered with @math 1 , 2 , ? , d . In this work, @math VV c is the class of all graph problems that can be solved in the standard port-numbering model. We study the following subclasses of @math VV c : Now we have many trivial containment relations, such as @math SB ⊆ MB ⊆ VB ⊆ VV ⊆ VV c , but it is not obvious if, for example, either of @math VB ⊆ SV or @math SV ⊆ VB should hold. Nevertheless, it turns out that we can identify a linear order on these classes. We prove that @math SB ? MB = VB ? SV = MV = VV ? VV c . The same holds for the constant-time versions of these classes. We also show that the constant-time variants of these classes can be characterised by a corresponding modal logic. Hence the linear order identified in this work has direct implications in the study of the expressibility of modal logic. Conversely, one can use tools from modal logic to study these classes. Given an undirected graph @math , it is known that its edge-connectivity @math can be computed by solving @math max-flow problems. The best time bounds known for the problem are @math , due to Matula (28th IEEE Symposium on the Foundations of Computer Science, 1987, pp. 249–251) if G is simple, and @math , due to Even and Tarjan (SIAM J. Comput., 4 (1975), pp. 507–518) if G is multiple.An @math time algorithm for computing the edge-connectivity @math of a multigraph @math , where @math is the number of pairs of nodes between which G has an edge, is proposed. This algorithm does not use any max-flow algorithm but consists only of @math times of graph searches and edge contractions. This method is then extended to a capacitated network to compute its minimum cut capacity in @math time. An @math maximum distance separable (MDS) array code of length @math , dimension @math , and sub-packetization @math is formed of @math matrices over a finite field @math , with every column of the matrix stored on a separate node in the distributed storage system and viewed as a coordinate of the codeword. Repair of a failed node (recovery of one erased column) can be performed by accessing a set of @math surviving (helper) nodes. The code is said to have the optimal access property if the amount of data accessed at each of the helper nodes meets a lower bound on this quantity. For optimal-access MDS codes with @math , the sub-packetization @math satisfies the bound @math . In our previous work (IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory, vol. 63, no. 4, 2017), for any @math and @math , we presented an explicit construction of optimal-access MDS codes with sub-packetization @math . In this paper, we take up the question of reducing the sub-packetization value @math to make it to approach the lower bound. We construct an explicit family of optimal-access codes with @math , which differs from the optimal value by at most a factor of @math . These codes can be constructed over any finite field @math as long as @math , and afford low-complexity encoding and decoding procedures. We also define a version of the repair problem that bridges the context of regenerating codes and codes with locality constraints (LRC codes), which we call group repair with optimal access . In this variation, we assume that the set of @math nodes is partitioned into @math repair groups of size @math , and require that the amount of accessed data for repair is the smallest possible whenever the @math helper nodes include all the other @math nodes from the same group as the failed node. For this problem, we construct a family of codes with the group optimal access property. These codes can be constructed over any field @math of size @math , and also afford low-complexity encoding and decoding procedures.