Improved approximations for guarding 1.5-dimensional terrains

Khaled Elbassioni, Erik Krohn, Domagoj Matijević, Julián Mestre, Domagoj Ševerdija

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present a 4-approximation algorithm for the problem of placing the fewest guards on a 1.5D terrain so that every point of the terrain is seen by at least one guard. This improves on the currently best approximation factor of 5 (see [14]). Unlike most of the previous techniques, our method is based on rounding the linear programming relaxation of the corresponding covering problem. Besides the simplicity of the analysis, which mainly relies on decomposing the constraint matrix of the LP into totally balanced matrices, our algorithm, unlike previous work, generalizes to the weighted and partial versions of the basic problem.

Original languageBritish English
Title of host publicationSTACS 2009 - 26th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science
Pages361-371
Number of pages11
StatePublished - 2009
Event26th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science, STACS 2009 - Freiburg, Germany
Duration: 26 Feb 200928 Feb 2009

Publication series

NameLeibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs
Volume3
ISSN (Print)1868-8969

Conference

Conference26th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science, STACS 2009
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityFreiburg
Period26/02/0928/02/09

Keywords

  • Approximation algorithms
  • Covering problems
  • Guarding 1.5-terrains
  • Linear programming
  • Totally balanced matrices

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