improving backtrack search for solving the tcsp lin xu and berthe y. choueiry constraint systems...
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Improving Backtrack Search For Solving the TCSP
Lin Xu and Berthe Y. Choueiry
Constraint Systems LaboratoryDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering
University of Nebraska-Lincoln{ lxu | choueiry }@cse.unl.edu
Outline
Temporal networks
Contributions
Results
• 2 order of magnitude improvement in
solving the TCSP
Temporal networksSimple Temporal Problem
• Floyd-Warshall, Bellman-Ford• STP [Time 03]
Disjunctive Temporal Problem• Search + heuristics [S&K 00, O&C 00, Tsa&P 03]
• Some of our results are applicable
Temporal Constraint Satisfaction Problem• Search + ULT [Schwalb & Dechter 97]
• Our contribution [this talk]
Solving TCSP TCSP is NP-hard, solved with BT [DM&P 91]
Contributions
1. Combination with previous results STP [Time 03]
2. Techniques that exploit structure AC, a preprocessing step– Show effectiveness of Articulation Points (AP) – NewCyc avoids unnecessary consistency checking– EdgeOrd is a variable ordering heuristic
Localized backtracking Implicit decomposition according to Articulation Points (AP)
3. Extensive evaluation on random problems
TCSP as a meta-CSP
Use STP to solve individual STPs efficiently Especially effective on sparse networks Requires triangulation: Plan A, Plan B
Preprocessing the TCSP
AC• Single n-ary constraint• GAC is NP-hard
AC• Works on existing triangles• Poly # of poly constraints
Advantages of AC
Powerful, especially for dense TCSPs
Sound and cheap O(n |E| k3)
It may be optimal
• Uses polynomial-size data-structures: Sup
ports, Supported-by
It uncovers a phase transition in TCSP
New Cycle Check: NewCyc
Check presence of new cycles O(|E|) Check consistency (STP) only in a cycle is
added to the graph
Advantages of NewCyc
Fewer consistency checking operations Operations restricted to new bi-connected
component
Does not affect # of nodes visited in search
EdgeOrd heuristic
Order edges using triangle adjacency Priority list is a by product of triangulation
Advantages of EdgeOrd Localized backtracking Automatic decomposition of the constraint graph
no need for explicit AP
Experimental evaluations
New random generator for TCSPs Guarantees 80% existence of a solution Averages over 100 samples Networks are not triangulated
Expected (direct) effects
Number of nodes visited (#NV)
• AC reduces the size of TCSP• EdgeOrd localizes BT
Consistency checking effort (#CC)
• AP, STP, NewCyc, reduce number of consistency checking at each node
Cumulative improvementBefore, after AP, after NewCyc,… … and now (AC, STP, NewCyc, EdgeOrd)
Max on y-axis 5.000.000 Max on y-axis 18.000, 2 orders of magnitude improvement