We study network coordination problems, as captured by the setting of generalized network design (, STOC 2018), in the face of uncertainty resulting from partial information that the network users hold regarding the actions of their peers. This uncertainty is formalized using 's Bayesian ignorance framework (TCS 2012). While the approach of is purely combinatorial, the current paper takes into account computational considerations: Our main technical contribution is the development of (strongly) polynomial time algorithms for local decision making in the face of Bayesian uncertainty.
In @cite_14 , investigate online combinatorial optimization problems where the requests arriving online are drawn independently and identically from a known distribution. As an example, @cite_14 study the online Steiner tree problem on an undirected graph @math . In this problem, at each step the algorithm receives a terminal that is drawn independently from a distribution over @math , and needs to maintain a subset of edges connecting all the terminals received so far.
@cite_14
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In this paper, we study online algorithms when the input is not chosen adversarially, but consists of draws from some given probability distribution. While this model has been studied for online problems like paging and k-server, it is not known how to beat the Φ(log n) bound for online Steiner tree if at each time instant, the demand vertex is a uniformly random vertex from the graph. For the online Steiner tree problem, we show that if each demand vertex is an independent draw from some probability distribution π: V → [0, 1], a variant of the natural greedy algorithm achieves Eω[A(ω)] Eω[OPT (ω)] = O(1); moreover, this result can be extended to some other subadditive problems. Both assumptions that the input sequence consists of independent draws from π, and that π is known to the algorithm are both essential; we show (almost) logarithmic lower bounds if either assumption is violated. Moreover, we give preliminary results on extending the Steiner tree results above to the related "expected ratio" measure Eω[ω(ω) OPT (ω)]. Finally, we use these ideas to give an average-case analysis of the Universal TSP problem. In this paper we study the Steiner tree problem over a dynamic set of terminals. We consider the model where we are given an @math -vertex graph @math with positive real edge weights, and our goal is to maintain a tree which is a good approximation of the minimum Steiner tree spanning a terminal set @math , which changes over time. The changes applied to the terminal set are either terminal additions (incremental scenario), terminal removals (decremental scenario), or both (fully dynamic scenario). Our task here is twofold. We want to support updates in sublinear @math time, and keep the approximation factor of the algorithm as small as possible. We show that we can maintain a @math -approximate Steiner tree of a general graph in @math time per terminal addition or removal. Here, @math denotes the stretch of the metric induced by @math . For planar graphs we achieve the same running time and the approximation ratio of @math . Moreover, we show faster algorithms for incremental and decremental scenarios. Finally, we show that if we allow higher approximation ratio, even more efficient algorithms are possible. In particular we show a polylogarithmic time @math -approximate algorithm for planar graphs. One of the main building blocks of our algorithms are dynamic distance oracles for vertex-labeled graphs, which are of independent interest. We also improve and use the online algorithms for the Steiner tree problem. 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. An instance of the k-Steiner forest problem consists of an undirected graph G = (V,E), the edges of which are associated with non-negative costs, and a collection D = (si,ti): 1 ≤ i ≤ d of distinct pairs of vertices, interchangeably referred to as demands. We say that a forest F ⊆ G connects a demand (si, ti) when it contains an si-ti path. Given a requirement parameter K ≤ |D|, the goal is to find a minimum cost forest that connects at least k demands in D. This problem has recently been studied by Hajiaghayi and Jain [SODA'06], whose main contribution in this context was to relate the inapproximability of k-Steiner forest to that of the dense k-subgraph problem. However, Hajiaghayi and Jain did not provide any algorithmic result for the respective settings, and posed this objective as an important direction for future research. In this paper, we present the first non-trivial approximation algorithm for the k-Steiner forest problem, which is based on a novel extension of the Lagrangian relaxation technique. Specifically, our algorithm constructs a feasible forest whose cost is within a factor of O(min n2 3, √d ċ log d) of optimal, where n is the number of vertices in the input graph and d is the number of demands.