Optimization Problems in Correlated Networks

Abstract

Solving the shortest path and the min-cut problems are key in achieving high performance and robust communication networks. Those problems have often beeny studied in deterministic and independent networks both in their original formulations as well as in several constrained variants. However, in real-world networks, link weights (e.g., delay, bandwidth, failure probability) are often correlated due to spatial or temporal reasons, and these correlated link weights together behave in a different manner and are not always additive. In this paper, we first propose two correlated link-weight models, namely (i) the deterministic correlated model and (ii) the (log-concave) stochastic correlated model. Subsequently, we study the shortest path problem and the min-cut problem under these two correlated models. We prove that these two problems are NP-hard under the deterministic correlated model, and even cannot be approximated to arbitrary degree in polynomial time. However, these two problems are polynomial-time solvable under the (constrained) nodal deterministic correlated model, and can be solved by convex optimization under the (log-concave) stochastic correlated model.