Local Search Heuristics for Budget Constrained K-Median Problem.

$k$-median, and $k$-center are well studied problems in operations research. In this paper, we present local search algorithm to obtain good solutions with respect to these measures. It is easy to show that both $k$-median, and $k$-center cannot be approximated within constants simultaneously. So we consider one of natural relaxations of the problem, namely minimizing the cost of $k$-median solution when a bound is placed on the $k$-center measure it induces. We call this problem as {\em budgeted $k$-median problem}. Our local search technique produces a constant factor approximation of the median cost, while ensuring that the bound on the $k$-center measure is not violated by more than a constant factor. Our technique is based on local search technique presented in ~\cite{aryaSTOC01}. The key idea of our technique is the preprocessing of the input to satisfy the {\em min-max} criteria of the optimization problem. The best approximation we obtain provides a factor 5 approximation to the median cost.

By: Vinayaka Pandit, Naveen Garg, Rohit Khandekar.

Published in: RI03002 in 2003

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