Approximating Steiner Networks with Node-Weights

• Authors: Zeev Nutov
• Venue: SIAM Journal on Computing
• Year: 2010

The (undirected) Steiner Network problem is as follows: given a graph $G=(V,E)$ with edge/node-weights and edge-connectivity requirements $\{r(u,v):u,v\in U\subseteq V\}$, find a minimum-weight subgraph $H$ of $G$ containing $U$ so that the $uv$-edge-connectivity in $H$ is at least $r(u,v)$ for all $u,v\in U$. The seminal paper of Jain [Combinatorica, 21 (2001), pp. 39-60], and numerous papers preceding it, considered the Edge-Weighted Steiner Network problem, with weights on the edges only, and developed novel tools for approximating minimum-weight edge-covers of several types of set functions and families. However, for the Node-Weighted Steiner Network (NWSN) problem, nontrivial approximation algorithms were known only for $0,1$ requirements. We make an attempt to change this situation by giving the first nontrivial approximation algorithm for NWSN with arbitrary requirements. Our approximation ratio for NWSN is $r_{\max}\cdot O(\ln|U|)$, where $r_{\max}=\max_{u,v\in U}r(u,v)$. This generalizes the result of Klein and Ravi [J. Algorithms, 19 (1995), pp. 104-115] for the case $r_{\max}=1$. We also give an $O(\ln|U|)$-approximation algorithm for the node-connectivity variant of NWSN (when the paths are required to be internally disjoint) for the case $r_{\max}=2$. Our results are based on a much more general approximation algorithm for the problem of finding a minimum node-weighted edge-cover of an uncrossable set-family. Finally, we give evidence that a polylogarithmic approximation ratio for NWSN with large $r_{\max}$ might not exist even for $|U|=2$ and unit weights.