The k-forest problem is a common generalization of both the k-MST and the dense- @math -subgraph problems. Formally, given a metric space on @math vertices @math , with @math demand pairs @math and a target'' @math , the goal is to find a minimum cost subgraph that connects at least @math demand pairs. In this paper, we give an @math -approximation algorithm for @math -forest, improving on the previous best ratio of @math by Segev & Segev. We then apply our algorithm for k-forest to obtain approximation algorithms for several Dial-a-Ride problems. The basic Dial-a-Ride problem is the following: given an @math point metric space with @math objects each with its own source and destination, and a vehicle capable of carrying at most @math objects at any time, find the minimum length tour that uses this vehicle to move each object from its source to destination. We prove that an @math -approximation algorithm for the @math -forest problem implies an @math -approximation algorithm for Dial-a-Ride. Using our results for @math -forest, we get an @math - approximation algorithm for Dial-a-Ride. The only previous result known for Dial-a-Ride was an @math -approximation by Charikar & Raghavachari; our results give a different proof of a similar approximation guarantee--in fact, when the vehicle capacity @math is large, we give a slight improvement on their results.
The @math -forest problem: The @math -forest problem is relatively new: it was defined by Hajiaghayi & Jain @cite_20 . An @math -approximation algorithm for even the directed @math -forest problem can be inferred from @cite_19 . Recently, Segev & Segev @cite_10 gave an @math approximation algorithm for @math -forest.
@cite_19 @cite_10 @cite_20
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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. In this paper we study the prize-collecting version of the Generalized Steiner Tree problem. To the best of our knowledge, there is no general combinatorial technique in approximation algorithms developed to study the prize-collecting versions of various problems. These problems are studied on a case by case basis by [5] by applying an LP-rounding technique which is not a combinatorial approach. The main contribution of this paper is to introduce a general combinatorial approach towards solving these problems through novel primal-dual schema (without any need to solve an LP). We fuse the primal-dual schema with Farkas lemma to obtain a combinatorial 3-approximation algorithm for the Prize-Collecting Generalized Steiner Tree problem. Our work also inspires a combinatorial algorithm [19] for solving a special case of Kelly's problem [22] of pricing edges.We also consider the k-forest problem, a generalization of k-MST and k-Steiner tree, and we show that in spite of these problems for which there are constant factor approximation algorithms, the k-forest problem is much harder to approximate. In particular, obtaining an approximation factor better than O(n1 6-e) for k-forest requires substantially new ideas including improving the approximation factor O(n1 3-e) for the notorious densest k-subgraph problem. We note that k-forest and prize-collecting version of Generalized Steiner Tree are closely related to each other, since the latter is the Lagrangian relaxation of the former. The k-forest problem is a common generalization of both the k-MST and the dense-k-subgraph problems. Formally, given a metric space on n vertices V, with m demand pairs ⊆ V × V and a "target" k ≤ m, the goal is to find a minimum cost subgraph that connects at least k demand pairs. In this paper, we give an O(min √n,√k )- approximation algorithm for k-forest, improving on the previous best ratio of O(min n2 3,√m log n) by Segev and Segev [20]. We then apply our algorithm for k-forest to obtain approximation algorithms for several Dial-a-Ride problems. The basic Dial-a-Ride problem is the following: given an n point metric space with m objects each with its own source and destination, and a vehicle capable of carrying at most k objects at any time, find the minimum length tour that uses this vehicle to move each object from its source to destination. We prove that an a-approximation algorithm for the k-forest problem implies an O(αċlog2 n)-approximation algorithm for Dial-a-Ride. Using our results for k-forest, we get an O(min √n,√k ċlog2 n)-approximation algorithm for Dial-a-Ride. The only previous result known for Dial-a-Ride was an O(√k log n)-approximation by Charikar and Raghavachari [5]; our results give a different proof of a similar approximation guarantee-- in fact, when the vehicle capacity k is large, we give a slight improvement on their results. The reduction from Dial-a-Ride to the k-forest problem is fairly robust, and allows us to obtain approximation algorithms (with the same guarantee) for the following generalizations: (i) Non-uniform Dial-a-Ride, where the cost of traversing each edge is an arbitrary nondecreasing function of the number of objects in the vehicle; and (ii) Weighted Diala-Ride, where demands are allowed to have different weights. The reduction is essential, as it is unclear how to extend the techniques of Charikar and Raghavachari to these Dial-a-Ride generalizations. In the Steiner Forest problem, we are given terminal pairs si, ti, and need to find the cheapest subgraph which connects each of the terminal pairs together. In 1991, Agrawal, Klein, and Ravi gave a primal-dual constant-factor approximation algorithm for this problem. Until this work, the only constant-factor approximations we know are via linear programming relaxations. In this paper, we consider the following greedy algorithm: Given terminal pairs in a metric space, a terminal is active if its distance to its partner is non-zero. Pick the two closest active terminals (say si, tj), set the distance between them to zero, and buy a path connecting them. Recompute the metric, and repeat. It has long been open to analyze this greedy algorithm. Our main result shows that this algorithm is a constant-factor approximation. We use this algorithm to give new, simpler constructions of cost-sharing schemes for Steiner forest. In particular, the first "group-strict" cost-shares for this problem implies a very simple combinatorial sampling-based algorithm for stochastic Steiner forest.