Chapter 5

Shortest Path Label-Correcting

FIFO Label-Correcting Algorithm
All Pairs Shortest Paths
Detecting Negative Cycles
2
Introduction
With negative arc lengths, Dijkstras algorithm may fail
why? may need to revise some node labels
Single source goal:
detect a negative cycle if it exists,
otherwise, find shortest paths from s to all other nodes
Label-correcting algorithms maintain a distance label d(j)
for every node j
At intermediate nodes, d(j) is an upper bound on the length of a
shortest path from s to j
When the algorithm terminates (w/o a negative cycle), d(j) is the
shortest path length
No label is permanent until the algorithm stops
3
Optimality Conditions
What are necessary and sufficient conditions for a set of
labels d(j) to be shortest path lengths?
Necessary:
(otherwise, we could find a shorter path with i as pred(j) )
These are also sufficient conditions! (proof in text)
But if the network contains a negative cycle, then no set of
distance labels will satisfy the N&S conditions for at
least some nodes, can always decrease d(j) by going
around the negative cycle once more
For now, assume no negative cycles; find d(j) that satisfy
conditions.
( ) ( ) ( )
for all ,
ij
d j d i c i j A s + e
4
FIFO Label-Correcting Algorithm
algorithm FIFO label-correcting;
begin
d(s) := 0 and pred(s) := 0; d(j) := for each node j = s;
LIST = {s};
while LIST = C do
begin
remove the first element from LIST;
for each arc (i, j) eA(i) do
if d(j) > d(i) + c
ij
then
begin
d(j) := d(i) + c
ij
; pred(j) := i;
if j eLIST then append j to the end of LIST;
end;
end;
end;
5
Analysis
How do we know the algorithm will stop?
Assume arc lengths are integers. Say C is the largest arc length.
Each d(j) is bounded above by nC and from below by nC. Since
each update of d(j) decreases it by at least 1, d(j) will be updated at
most 2nC times. Since each iteration updates a distance label,
there will be at most 2n
2
C iterations, or O(n
2
C)
When it stops, the distance labels will satisfy the
optimality conditions
FIFO algorithm actually solves the problem in O(nm) time
6
Detecting a Negative Cycle
Keep track of how many times the algorithm examines
each node.
If it examines any node more than n-1 times, then it must
be considering paths containing more than n-1 arcs, i.e.,
paths with cycles.
The only way for a path with more arcs to have shorter
total arc length is that it is not a path but a walk containing
a negative cycle
Therefore, if algorithm examines a node more than n-1
times, stop and conclude a negative cycle exists
7
Dequeue Version of Label-Correcting
A dequeue is a list to (from) which elements can be added
(deleted) at either end
In the dequeue implementation of the label-correcting
algorithm,
nodes are selected from the front of the list
nodes are added to the front of the list if they have been examined
earlier
nodes are added to the rear of the list otherwise
This implementation is more efficient because it updates
distances sooner and reexamines fewer nodes.
8
Detecting Negative Cycles II
Every so often, check to see if the predecessor graph
(which is to become the shortest path tree) contains a cycle
such a cycle would occur if a negative cycle were driving the path
lengths down
How to detect a cycle in the predecessor graph?
Call the source node labeled and all other nodes unlabeled
Examine each unlabeled node k:
Assign a label k to node k
Trace predecessor indices back from k and assign the label k to all
nodes until a previously labeled node, say l, is reached
If nodes k and l have the same label, then the pred graph is cyclic
Requires O(n) time
Do this after every on distance updates
9
All Pairs Shortest Paths
Assume the network is strongly connected and does not
contain a negative cycle
Problem: find a shortest path from every node to every
other node. For each pair of nodes i and j, we seek d[i, j] =
the length of a shortest path from i to j.
For sparse networks, can simply apply the single source shortest
path algorithm n times, with a different node as source node each
time
For dense networks, an all-pairs label-correcting algorithm is
more efficient
10
Floyd-Warshall Algorithm
Optimality conditions: A set of node labels {d[i, j]} represent
shortest path lengths if and only if they satisfy the triangle
inequality:

Floyd-Warshall updates distances in a clever way until they
satisfy the optimality conditions :
Let be the length of a shortest path from node i to
node j if only nodes 1,, k-1 are used as intermediate
nodes. Compute recursively as
| | | | | |
, , , d i j d i k d k j s +
| |
,
k
d i j
| | | | | | | | { }
1
, min , , , ,
k k k k
d i j d i j d i k d k j
+
= +