Network flow theory has been used across a number of disciplines, including theoretical computer science, operations research, and discrete math, to model not only problems in the transportation of goods and information, but also a wide range of applications from image segmentation problems in computer vision to deciding when a baseball team has been eliminated from contention. This graduate text and reference presents a succinct, unified view of a wide variety of efficient combinatorial algorithms for network flow problems, including many results not found in other books. It covers maximum flows, minimum-cost flows, generalized flows, multicommodity flows, and global minimum cuts and also presents recent work on computing electrical flows along with recent applications of these flows to classical problems in network flow theory.

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There has been an explosive growth in the field of combinatorial algorithms. These algorithms depend not only on results in combinatorics and especially in graph theory, but also on the development of new data structures and new techniques for analyzing algorithms. Four classical problems in network optimization are covered in detail, including a development of the data structures they use and an analysis of their running time. Data Structures and Network Algorithms attempts to provide the reader with both a practical understanding of the algorithms, described to facilitate their easy implementation, and an appreciation of the depth and beauty of the field of graph algorithms.

In the past few decades, there has been a large amount of work on algorithms for linear network flow problems, special classes of network problems such as assignment problems (linear and quadratic), Steiner tree problem, topology network design and nonconvex cost network flow problems.Network optimization problems find numerous applications in transportation, in communication network design, in production and inventory planning, in facilities location and allocation, and in VLSI design.The purpose of this book is to cover a spectrum of recent developments in network optimization problems, from linear networks to general nonconvex network flow problems./a

Table of contents

Revised throughout Includes new chapters on the network simplex algorithm and a section on the five color theorem Recent developments are discussed

A rigorous and comprehensive treatment of network flow theory and monotropic optimization by one of the world's most renowned applied mathematicians. This classic textbook covers extensively the duality theory and the algorithms of linear and nonlinear network optimization optimization, and their significant extensions to monotropic programming (separable convex constrained optimization problems, including linear programs). It complements our other book on the subject of network optimization Network Optimization: Continuous and Discrete Models (Athena Scientific, 1998). Monotropic programming problems are characterized by a rich interplay between combinatorial structure and convexity properties. Rockafellar develops, for the first time, algorithms and a remarkably complete duality theory for these problems. Among its special features the book: (a) Treats in-depth the duality theory for linear and nonlinear network optimization (b) Uses a rigorous step-by-step approach to develop the principal network optimization algorithms (c) Covers the main algorithms for specialized network problems, such as max-flow, feasibility, assignment, and shortest path (d) Develops in detail the theory of monotropic programming, based on the author's highly acclaimed research (e) Contains many examples, illustrations, and exercises (f) Contains much new material not found in any other textbook