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K Centers Problem Set 1 (Greedy Approximate Algorithm) : Triangular Inequality

The document describes the k-centers problem and a greedy approximate algorithm for solving it. The k-centers problem involves selecting k locations (e.g. warehouses) from a set of cities to minimize the maximum distance between any city and its closest location. The greedy algorithm works by sequentially selecting locations farthest from existing choices, guaranteeing a solution within twice the optimal. It works when city distances follow the triangular inequality.

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karamthota bhaskar naik
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257 views

K Centers Problem Set 1 (Greedy Approximate Algorithm) : Triangular Inequality

The document describes the k-centers problem and a greedy approximate algorithm for solving it. The k-centers problem involves selecting k locations (e.g. warehouses) from a set of cities to minimize the maximum distance between any city and its closest location. The greedy algorithm works by sequentially selecting locations farthest from existing choices, guaranteeing a solution within twice the optimal. It works when city distances follow the triangular inequality.

Uploaded by

karamthota bhaskar naik
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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5/23/2017 KCentersProblem|Set1(GreedyApproximateAlgorithm)GeeksforGeeks

KCentersProblem|Set1(GreedyApproximateAlgorithm)
Given n cities and distances between every pair of cities, select k cities to place warehouses (or ATMs or
Cloud Server) such that the maximum distance of a city to a warehouse (or ATM or Cloud Server) is
minimized.

For example consider the following four cities, 0, 1, 2 and 3 and distances between them, how do place
2 ATMs among these 4 cities so that the maximum distance of a city to an ATM is minimized.

There is no polynomial time solution available for this problem as the problem is a known NP-Hard
problem. There is a polynomial time Greedy approximate algorithm, the greedy algorithm provides a
solution which is never worse that twice the optimal solution. The greedy solution works only if the
distances between cities follow Triangular Inequality (Distance between two points is always smaller
than sum of distances through a third point).

The 2-Approximate Greedy Algorithm:


1) Choose the rst center arbitrarily.

2) Choose remaining k-1 centers using the following criteria.


Let c1, c2, c3, ci be the already chosen centers. Choose
(i+1)th center by picking the city which is farthest from already
selected centers, i.e, the point p which has following value as maximum
Min[dist(p, c1), dist(p, c2), dist(p, c3), . dist(p, ci)]

The following diagram taken fromhereillustrates above algorithm.

http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/kcentersproblemset1greedyapproximatealgorithm/ 1/2
5/23/2017 KCentersProblem|Set1(GreedyApproximateAlgorithm)GeeksforGeeks

Example (k = 3 in the above shown Graph)


a) Let the rst arbitrarily picked vertex be 0.

b) The next vertex is 1 because 1 is the farthest vertex from 0.

c) Remaining cities are 2 and 3. Calculate their distances from already selected centers (0 and 1). The
greedy algorithm basically calculates following values.

Minimum of all distanced from 2 to already considered centers


Min[dist(2, 0), dist(2, 1)] = Min[7, 8] = 7

Minimum of all distanced from 3 to already considered centers


Min[dist(3, 0), dist(3, 1)] = Min[6, 5] = 5

After computing the above values, the city 2 is picked as the value corresponding to 2 is maximum.

Note that the greedy algorithm doesnt give best solution for k = 2 as this is just an approximate
algorithm with bound as twice of optimal.

Proof that the above greedy algorithm is 2 approximate.


Let OPT be the maximum distance of a city from a center in the Optimal solution. We need to show that
the maximum distance obtained from Greedy algorithm is 2*OPT.

The proof can be done using contradiction.

a) Assume that the distance from the furthest point to all centers is > 2OPT.

b) This means that distances between all centers are also > 2OPT.

c) We have k + 1 points with distances > 2OPT between every pair.

d) Each point has a center of the optimal solution with distance <= OPT to it.

e) There exists a pair of points with the same center X in the optimal solution (pigeonhole principle: k
optimal centers, k+1 points)

f) The distance between them is at most 2OPT (triangle inequality) which is a contradiction.

Source:
http://algo2.iti.kit.edu/vanstee/courses/kcenter.pdf

This article is contributed byHarshit. Please write comments if you nd anything incorrect, or you want
to share more information about the topic discussed above

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