Online coloring of disk graphs

Abstract

In this paper, we give a family of online algorithms for the classical coloring problem of intersection graphs of discs with bounded diameter. Our algorithms make use of a geometric representation of such graphs and are inspired by an algorithm of Fiala et al., but have better competitive ratios. The improvement comes from using two techniques of partitioning the set of vertices before coloring them. One of whichis an application of a b-fold coloring of the plane. The method is more general and we show how it can be applied to coloring other shapes on the plane as well as adjust it for online L(2, 1)-labeling.