Constrained Graph Optimization: Interdiction and Preservation Problems

Abstract

The maximum flow, shortest path, and maximum matching problems are a set of basic graph problems that are critical in theoretical computer science and applications. Constrained graph optimization, a variation of these basic graph problems involving modification of the underlying graph, is equally important but sometimes significantly harder. In particular, one can explore these optimization problems with additional cost constraints. In the preservation case, the optimizer has a budget to preserve vertices or edges of a graph, preventing them from being deleted. The optimizer wants to find the best set of preserved edges/vertices in which the cost constraints are satisfied and the basic graph problems are optimized. For example, in shortest path preservation, the optimizer wants to find a set of edges/vertices within which the shortest path between two predetermined points is smallest. In interdiction problems, one deletes vertices or edges from the graph with a particular cost in order to impede the basic graph problems as much as possible (for example, delete edges/vertices to maximize the shortest path between two predetermined vertices). Applications of preservation problems include optimal road maintenance, power grid maintenance, and job scheduling, while interdiction problems are related to drug trafficking prevention, network stability assessment, and counterterrorism. Computational hardness results are presented, along with heuristic methods for approximating solutions to the matching interdiction problem. Also, efficient algorithms are presented for special cases of graphs, including on planar graphs. The graphs in many of the listed applications are planar, so these algorithms have important practical implications.