CSL356 Oct 6, 7, 9

TUTORIAL SHEET 8

1. [KT-Chapter7] Consider the following problem. You are given a flow network with
unit-capacity edges: it consists of a directed graph G = (V, E), a source s and a sink
t, and ue = 1 for every edge e. You are also given a parameter k. The goal is delete k
edges so as to reduce the maximum s − t flow in G by as much as possible. In other
words, you should find a set of edges F ⊆ E so that |F | = k and the maximum s − t
flow in the graph G0 = (V, E \ F ) is as small as possible. Give a polynomial-time
algorithm to solve this problem.
Solution: First observe that by removing any k edges in a graph, we reduce the
capacity of any cut by at most k, and so, the min-cut will reduce by at most k.
Therefore, the max-flow will reduce by at most k. Now we show that one can in fact
reduce the max-flow by k. To achieve this, we take a min-cut X and remove k edges
going out of it. The capacity of this cut will now become f − k, where f is the value
of the max-flow. Therefore, the min-cut becomes f − k, and so, the max-flow becomes
f − k.

2. [KT-Chapter7] In a standard s − t maximum flow problem, we assume edges have

capacities, and there is no limit on how much flow is allowed to flow through a node. In
this problem, we consider the variant of the maximum flow and minimum cut problems
with node capacities. Let G = (V, E) be a directed graph, with source s, sink t , and
non-negative node capacities uv for each v ∈ V . Given a flow f in this graph, the flow
though a node v is defined as e∈δ− (v) fe . where δ − (v) denotes the edges coming into
P

v. We say that a flow is feasible, if it satisfies the usual flow-conservation constraints

and the node-capacity constraint: the flow through a node v cannot exceed cv . Give
a polynomial-time algorithm to find a s − t maximum flow in such node-capacitated
network. Define an s − t cut for node-capacitated networks, and show that the analog
of the Maximum Flow Min Cut theorem holds true.
Solution: We construct a new graph H where for every vertex v in G, we have two
vertices vi and vo . There is an edge from vi to vo of capacity cv . If the graph G has
an edge (u, v), then we add an edge (uo , vi ) in H of infinite capacity. Now notice that
any flow in H entering vi must go through the edge (vi , vo ) and so the total amount of
flow entering vi (or leaving vo ) cannot exceed cv . Now it is easy to check that a flow
of value v in G results in a flow of the same value in H and vice-versa.

3. [KT-Chapter7] Let M be an n × n matrix with each entry equal to either 0 or 1.

Let mij denote the entry in row i and column j. A diagonal entry is one of the form
mii for some i. Swapping rows i and j of the matrix M denotes the following action:
we swap the values mik and mjk for k = 1, 2, . . . , n. Swapping two columns is defined
analogously. We say that M is re-arrangeable if it is possible to swap some of the

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 pairs of rows and some of the pairs of columns (in any sequence) so that after all the
swapping, all the diagonal entries of M are equal to 1.

(a) Give an example of a matrix M which is not re-arrangeable, but for which at least
one entry in each row and each column is equal to 1.
(b) Give a polynomial-time algorithm that determines whether a matrix M with 0-1
entries, is re-arrangeable.

Solution: Try (a) yourself. Draw a bipartite graph G where we have n vertices on
both sides. We have an edge between vertex i (on the left side) and vertex j (on the
right side) iff M (i, j) is 1. Now, show that such a swapping exists iff G has a perfect
matching.

4. Show that any s − t flow can be written as a sum of flows along at most m s − t paths
and cycles.
Solution: Consider the edges which have positive flow – let this graph be H. If there
is a cycle in H, let δ be the minimum flow along any edge in this cycle. We first remove
δ units of flow along this cycle. This will reduce the flow along any edge in this cycle
by δ units (and note that flow-conservation will still hold). Note that flow along some
edge will become 0, and so, we will remove such edge(s) from H. Similarly, if we find
a path from s to t in H we can remove δ units of flow along such a path, where δ is
the minimum flow along any edge in this path. Again, flow on some edge will become
0. Thus, this process of removing a path or a cycle will happen at most m times.

5. Consider the following modification to the Ford Fulkerson algorithm: among all pos-
sible s-t paths in the residual graph, pick the one such that the maximum amount of
flow can be sent along this path. How will you find such a path ? Show that you will
need at most log(nU ) iterations. What is the overall running time ?
Solution: Let v ? be the max-flow value in G. Suppose we have a flow f of value v
in the graph G, and let Gf be the residual graph. Then, the max-flow in Gf is v ? − v.
Using the above problem, we know that there is a path from s to t in Gf where we can
send at least (v ? − v)/m units of flow. Thus the max flow in new residual graph will
be at most (1 − 1/m)(v ? − v). From this we can see that after i iterations, the max
flow in the residual graph will be at most v ? (1 − 1/m)i . Since everything is integral,
we will stop when v ? (1 − 1/m)i becomes less than 1. Since v ? ≤ nU , we see that
i ≤ O(m log(nU )).

6 [KT-Chapter7] Consider a set of mobile computing clients in a certain town who

each need to be connected to one of several possible base stations. Suppose there
are n clients, with the position of each client specified by its (x, y) coordinate in the
plane. There are also k base stations; the position of each of these is also specified
by its (x, y) coordinate in the plane. For each client, we wish to connect it to exactly
one of the base stations. Our choice of connections is constrained in the following
ways: (i) there is a range parameter r, and a client can only be connected to a base
station that is within distance r, (ii) there is a load parameter L, and no more than L

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 clients can be connected to any single base station. Your goal is to design a polynomial
time algorithm for the following problem – given the above data, decide whether it is
possible to assign every client to a base station subject to the two constraints.
Solution: This is an application of max flow problem. Have one vertex for every
client and one vertex for every base station. Add two extra vertices s and t. Now,
add an edge from s to every client vertex and capacity of this edge is 1. Similarly add
edges from every base station vertex to t of capacity L. Finally, add an edge from a
client vertex to a base station vertex if the client can be assigned to this base station.
The capacity is infinity (or 1, does not matter).

7 [KT-Chapter7] Give a polynomial time algorithm for the following minimization

analogue of the max-flow problem. You are given a directed graph G = (V, E), with a
source s and sink t, and numbers (capacities) le for each edge e ∈ E. We define a flow
f , and the value of a flow, as usual, requiring that all nodes except s and t satisfy flow
conservation. However, the given numbers are lower bounds on edge flow, i.e., they
require that fe ≥ le for each edge e, and there is no upper bound on flow values on
edges.

(a) Give a polynomial time algorithm that finds a feasible flow of minimum possible
value (Hint: Start with any flow from s to t which obeys the lower bounds, and
try to send a maximum flow from t to s in a suitable modification of the graph
G).
(b) Prove an analogue of the max- flow min-cut theorem for this problem.

Solution: For part (a), first send a flow from s to t such that all lower bounds are
satisfied. We can easily do this as follows: for every edge e = (u, v) find a path from s
to t which goes through (u, v), and send le amount of flow on this path. Let f denote
this flow. Now that we have a feasible flow, we will try to reduce the flow as much as
possible, but we do not want to reduce the flow on an edge below le . Therefore, we
reverse every edge, and make it’s capacity equal to fe − le . Now we send a max flow
from t to s in this “reversed” graph.