The edge-orientation problem and some of its variants on weighted graphs

Abstract

Let G( V, E) be a connected undirected graph with n vertices and m edges, where each vertex v is associated with a cost C( v) and each edge e = ( u, v) is associated with two weights, W( u → v) and W( v → u). The issue of assigning an orientation to each edge so that G becomes a directed graph is resolved in this paper. Determining a scheme to assign orientations of all edges such that max x ∈ V C ( x ) + ∑ x → z W ( x → z ) is minimized is the objective. This issue is called the edge-orientation problem (the EOP). Two variants of the EOP, the Out-Degree-EOP and the Vertex-Weighted EOP, are first proposed and then efficient algorithms for solving them on general graphs are designed. Ascertaining that the EOP is NP-hard on bipartite graphs and chordal graphs is the second result. Finally, an O( n log n)-time algorithm for the EOP on trees is designed. In general, the algorithmic results in this paper facilitate the implementation of the weighted fair queuing (WFQ) on real networks. The objective of the WFQ is to assign an effective weight for each flow to enhance link utilization. Our findings consequently can be easily extended to other classes of graphs, such as cactus graphs, block graphs, and interval graphs.