提出公平最小标记算法,确保网络中各群体公平访问目标节点。
Fair Minimum Labeling: Efficient Temporal Network Activations for Reachability and Equity
- 设计最小成本时序边激活方案,保障多群体覆盖需求。
- 在树结构上可最优求解,一般图上期望性能为O(log|V|)。
- 适合资源受限下的公平性要求场景,如边缘计算和灾备系统。
平衡资源效率与公平性对支持现代学习应用的网络系统至关重要。我们提出公平最小标记(FML)问题:设计一个最小成本的时序边激活计划,确保网络中每组节点都能根据指定覆盖要求充分访问目标集合。FML捕捉了边激活存在资源开销且公平访问至关重要的系统中的核心权衡,例如分布式数据采集、边缘-云系统的更新传播以及关键基础设施的公平服务恢复。我们首先给出了单终端情形的结构性刻画,证明其等价于带根的覆盖斯坦纳问题。证明FML是NP难的,且对|C|个群体不存在((1-ε)ln|C|)-近似解,甚至在星形图上也是如此;但对于固定数量的群体,它具有常数因子近似解,仍为APX难。随后,针对双群体、单终端情形,我们提出了概率近似算法:一种基于精确树子程序的算法,在树结构网络上达到最优,一般图上期望性能为O(log|V|);另一快速的双准则变体,其覆盖偏差随树计算合并深度平滑恶化。为提升实际可扩展性,还引入基于最短路径树约简的图原生变体。实验表明,FML有效保障群体层面公平性,而图原生变体显著提升可扩展性并实现竞争性激活成本。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Balancing resource efficiency and fairness is critical in networked systems that support modern learning applications. We introduce the \emph{Fair Minimum Labeling} (FML) problem: the task of designing a minimum-cost temporal edge activation plan that ensures each group of nodes in a network has sufficient access to a designated target set, according to specified coverage requirements. FML captures key trade-offs in systems where edge activations incur resource costs and equitable access is essential, such as distributed data collection, update dissemination in edge-cloud systems, and fair service restoration in critical infrastructure. We first give a structural characterisation of the single-terminal case, showing that it is equivalent to the rooted Covering Steiner problem. We prove that FML is NP-hard and admits no $((1-ε)\ln |\mathcal{C}|)$-approximation for $|\mathcal{C}|$ groups, already on a star, while for any fixed number of groups it inherits a constant-factor approximation and remains APX-hard. We then present probabilistic approximation algorithms for the two-group, single-terminal case: an algorithm whose tree subroutine is exact, hence optimal on tree-structured networks and $\mathcal{O}(\log |V|)$ in expectation on general graphs, together with a faster bicriteria variant whose coverage violation degrades gracefully with the merge depth of the tree computation. For practical scalability, we additionally introduce a graph-native variant based on a shortest-path-tree reduction. Empirical results show that FML enforces group-level fairness, while the graph-native variant substantially improves scalability and achieves competitive activation cost.
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