Design and Analysis of Minimum Spanning Tree in Euclidean Plane

Abstract

N points are given in the Euclidean plane, and the minimum spanning tree problem seeks for a minimum spanning tree interconnecting the n points so that there is only one path between any two points. One of the classic and frequently-used algorithms for minimum spanning tree problem is Prim's algorithm, but it consumes large time and space complexity for the plane minimum spanning tree problem is of O(n2) numbers of edges. Luckily, it was proved that the plane minimum spanning tree is a sub-graph of Delaunay triangulation for the given points in the plane, and the number of edges in the triangulation is O(n). This motivates us to efficiently compute the Delaunay triangulation of the given points and then find the minimum spanning tree in the triangulation. This paper presents an algorithm based on the divide and conquer for Delaunay triangulation together with the Prim's algorithm to produce an O(nlogn) algorithm for minimum spanning tree problem in the plane, implements the visual graphic interface with various selected algorithms for plane minimum spanning tree and compares their running time.