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QMM Assignment

This document describes how to formulate finding a minimum spanning tree as a linear programming problem. It defines the objective as minimizing the total cost of edges in the spanning tree. It establishes constraints to ensure the tree connects all vertices using n-1 edges and forms no cycles. Specifically, it provides constraints for each vertex to have at least one edge, and constraints limiting the number of edges in any subgraph to prevent cycles. Solving this linear program using the Simplex method finds the optimal minimum spanning tree.

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Kushagra Agarwal
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117 views3 pages

QMM Assignment

This document describes how to formulate finding a minimum spanning tree as a linear programming problem. It defines the objective as minimizing the total cost of edges in the spanning tree. It establishes constraints to ensure the tree connects all vertices using n-1 edges and forms no cycles. Specifically, it provides constraints for each vertex to have at least one edge, and constraints limiting the number of edges in any subgraph to prevent cycles. Solving this linear program using the Simplex method finds the optimal minimum spanning tree.

Uploaded by

Kushagra Agarwal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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YASH BHATIA

QMM ASSIGNMENT

2016SMF6696

Minimum Spanning Tree Linear Programming


Formulation
A minimum spanning tree is a subset of edges of a connected graph that
connects all the vertices together without any cycles and minimum possible
edge weight. One example would be a telecommunications company which
is trying to lay out cables in new neighborhood. If it is constrained to bury the
cable only along certain paths (e.g. along roads), then there would be a
graph representing which points are connected by those paths.
In this problem, we will be given a graph and a function on the edges, we
want to find out a spanning tree that fulfills the objective of minimizing the
overall function value under certain constraints. We have to select a subset
of the edges that form a spanning tree. For this we have to define a variable
for each edge to indicate whether that edge is a part of the spanning tree or
not.
Let

x ij

represents the edge from node i to j.


x ij

=1
=0

Edge is a part of spanning tree.


Otherwise.

Let the function on edges be Cost (

c ij

). Then our objective is to minimize

the total edge cost:


Z = c ij x ij
Following are the constraints:
1. There should be (n-1) edges in tree.
2. There should be no cycles in tree.

Let us explain this with the help of an example:

Indian Institute of Technology,Delhi

Page 1

YASH BHATIA

QMM ASSIGNMENT

2016SMF6696

Let us develop the constraints for this problem. As before, we assign a


variable to each edge of the graph, and, if the variable xij is 1 then the edge
from node i to node j is in the tree. To find the minimum spanning tree we
minimize the sum of the variable-weight products.

First constraint: We require exactly 5 edges in the tree. Therefore,


x ab + x ac + x ae + x bc + x bd + x cd + xce + x cf + x df + x ef =5
The above equation is not sufficient as we can have the feasible solution by
selecting smallest five edges but that would not span the graph. To achieve
this we have to ensure that atleast one edge corresponding to each node
must be there in the tree. This requirement results in following constraints:
x ab+ x ac + x ae=1

[Vertex a]

x ab+ x bc + x bd=1

[Vertex b]

x ac +x bc + x cd +x ce +x cf =1

[Vertex c]

x bd + x cd + x df =1

[Vertex d]

x ae + x ce+ x ef =1

[Vertex e]

x cf + x df + x ef =1

[Vertex f]

Indian Institute of Technology,Delhi

Page 2

YASH BHATIA

QMM ASSIGNMENT

2016SMF6696

Second constraint: Taking all sub-graphs in which there is a possibility of


formation of cycles. For example, sub-graph containing nodes {a,b,c} might
have a cycle of 3 therefore,
x ab + x ac + x bc 2
Similarly for sub-graph {a,b,c,d}:
x ab + x ac + x bc + x bd + x cd 3
We can write similar constraints for the various cycles possible. There are 26
such constraints.
Now, we can apply Simplex method to solve the above equations and obtain
an optimal solution.

Indian Institute of Technology,Delhi

Page 3

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