Research on flows over time has been conducted mainly in two separate and mainly independent approaches, namely \emph{discrete} and \emph{continuous} models, depending on whether a discrete or continuous representation of time is used. Recently, Borel flows have been introduced to build a bridge between these two models.
In this paper, we consider the maximum Borel flow problem formulated in a network where capacities on arcs are given as Borel measures and storage might be allowed at the nodes of the network. This problem is formulated as a linear program in a space of measures. We define a dual problem and prove a strong duality result. We show that strong duality is closely related to a MaxFlow-MinCut Theorem.
We consider the dynamic shortest path problem in the continuous-time model because of its importance. This problem has been extensively studied in the literature. But so far, all contributions to this problem are based on the assumption that all transit times are strictly positive. However, in order to study dynamic network flows it is essential to support negative transit times since they occur quite naturally in residual networks.
In this paper we extend the work of Philpott [SIAM Control Opt.,~1994, pp.~538--552] to the case of arbitrary (also negative and irrational) transit times. We study a corresponding linear program in a space of measures and give a full characterization of its extreme points. In particular, we show a one-to-one correspondence between extreme points and dynamic paths.
This paper concerns the shortest path problem for a network in which arc costs can vary with
time, each arc has a transit time, parking with a corresponding
time-varying cost is allowed at the nodes, and time is modeled as a continuum. The resulting problem is called the {\em continuous-time dynamic shortest path problem}, which is well studied in the literature. However, the problem appears as a subproblem when one wishes to test, via an algorithm for dynamic shortest paths, the presence of negative cycles in the residual network in order to develop continuous-time analogues of several well-known optimality conditions for continuous-time dynamic network flow problems. But, in general, the residual network contains arcs with negative transit times and hence the results in the literature are useless for these purposes since all results are based on the assumption of positive transit times.
In this paper, we relax this condition to allow negative transit times. We study a corresponding linear program in space of measures and prove the existence of an optimal extreme point solution. Moreover, we define a dual problem and establish a strong duality result that shows under certain assumptions that the value of the linear program equals the value of the dual problem and both values are attained. We also present counterexamples to show that strong duality only holds under these assumptions.
Dynamic network flow problems model the temporal evolution of flows over time and also consider changes of network parameters such as capacities, costs, supplies, and demands over time. These problems have been extensively studied in the past because of their important role in real world applications such as transport, traffic, and logistics. This has led to many results, but the more challenging continuous time model still lacks some of the key features such as network related optimality conditions and algorithms that are available in the static case.
The aim of this paper is to advance the state of the art for dynamic network flows by developing the continuous time analogues of several well-known optimality conditions for static network flows. Specifically, we establish a reduced cost optimality condition, a negative cycle optimality condition, and a strong duality result for a very general class of dynamic
network flows. The underlying idea is to construct a dual feasible solution that proves optimality when the residual network (with respect to a given flow) contains no dynamic cycles with negative cost. We also discuss a generic negative cycle-canceling algorithm resulting from the corresponding optimality criterion and point out promising directions for future research.
Network flows over time form a fascinating area of research. They model the temporal
dynamics of network flow problems occurring in a wide variety of
applications. Research in this area has been pursued in two different and mainly independent
directions with respect to time modeling: discrete and continuous time models.
In this paper we deploy measure theory in order to introduce a general model of network flows over time combining both discrete and continuous aspects into a single model. Here, the flow on each arc is modeled as a Borel measure on the real line (time axis) which assigns to each
suitable subset a real value, interpreted as the amount of
flow entering the arc over the subset. We focus on the maximum flow problem formulated in a network where capacities on arcs are also given as Borel measures and storage might be allowed at the nodes of the network. We generalize the concept of cuts to the case of these Borel Flows and extend the famous MaxFlow-MinCut Theorem.
Large-scale maintenance in industrial plants requires the entire shutdown of production
units for disassembly, comprehensive inspection and renewal. It is an important process but causes high out-of-service cost. Therefore a good schedule for a shutdown and and an analysis of possible associated risks are crucial for the manufacturer.
We derive models and algorithms for shutdown scheduling that include different features
such as time-cost tradeoff, precedence constraints, hiring external resources, resource leveling, different working shifts, and risk analysis. Our experimental results show that our methods solve large real-world instances very fast and yield an excellent resource utilization. A comparison with solutions of a mixed integer program on smaller instances proves the high quality
of the schedules that our algorithms produce within a few minutes.
Our algorithms work in two phases. The first phase supports the manager in finding a
good makespan for the shutdown. It computes an approximate project time cost tradeoff
curve together with a stochastic evaluation of the risk for meeting a particular makespan t. Our risk measures are the expected tardiness at time t and the probability of completing the shutdown within time t. In the second, detailed planning phase, we solve the actual scheduling optimization problem for the makespan chosen in the first phase heuristically and compute a detailed schedule that respects all side constraints. Again, we complement this by computing
upper bounds for the same two risk measures, but now for the detailed schedule. The shutdown problem has many relationships with well established areas of scheduling, and we also give an overview on the large variety of scheduling problems involved.
We propose an online model for general demand cost sharing games and identify critical properties for group-strategyproofness and weak group-strategyproofness of cost sharing mechanisms for these games. We define incremental online cost sharing mechanisms which can be derived from competitive algorithms.
Based on our general results, we develop online cost sharing mechanisms for several binary demand and general demand cost sharing games derived from network design and scheduling problems. Our results complement the work on incremental mechanisms by Moulin.
For many fundamental cooperative cost sharing games, especially when costs are supermodular, it is known that Moulin mechanisms inevitably suffer from poor budget balance factors. Mehta, Roughgarden, and Sundararajan recently introduced acyclic mechanisms, which achieve a slightly weaker notion of group-strategyproofness, but leave more flexibility to improve upon the approximation guarantees with respect to budget balance and social cost.
In this paper, we provide a very simple but powerful method for turning any rho-approximation algorithm for a combinatorial optimization problem into a rho-budget balanced acyclic mechanism. Hence, we show that there is no gap between the best possible approximation guarantees of full-knowledge approximation algorithms and weakly group-strategyproof cost sharing mechanisms.
The applicability of our method is demonstrated by deriving mechanisms for scheduling and network design problems which beat the best possible budget balance factors of Moulin mechanisms. By elaborating our framework, we provide means to construct weakly group-strategyproof mechanisms with approximate social cost. The mechanisms we develop for completion time scheduling problems perform surprisingly well by achieving the first constant budget balance and social cost factors.
Recently, Khuller, Moss and Naor presented a greedy algorithm for the budgeted maximum coverage problem. In this note, we observe that this algorithm also approximates a special case of set-union knapsack problem within a constant factor. In the special case, an element is a member of less than a constant number of subsets. This guarantee naturally extends to densest k-subgraph problem on graphs of bounded degree.
We analyze a remarkable class of centrally symmetric polytopes, the Hansen
polytopes of split graphs. We confirm Kalai's 3^d-conjecture for such polytopes
(they all have at least 3^d nonempty faces) and show that the Hanner polytopes
among them (which have exactly 3^d nonempty faces) correspond to threshold
graphs. Our study produces a new family of Hansen polytopes that have only
3^d+16 nonempty faces.