Maxim um Fl ow

Netw ork s
 CONTENTS
 Network flows on directed acyclic graphs

 Ford-Fulkerson Algorithms
-Residual networks

 Min cut Max flow theorem

 Max Bipartite matching

 Network flows on directed acyclic graphs

 DAG is a directed graph with no cycles.

 Flow network: a flow network G = (V,E) is a directed graph

in which each edge (u,v) ∈ E has a nonnegative capacity
c(u,v) >= 0. if (u,v) ∉ E , we assume that c(u,v) = 0.

We distinguish two vertices in flow network , source s and

sink t.
 The source produces the material at a steady rate .
 The sink consumes the material at a steady rat

Objective : how much of material can be imposed through

network that network can handle
 Flow: A flow in G is a real-valued function f : V × V → R that
satisfies three properties:

1. Capacity constraint : For all u,v ∈ V, we require f(u,v) ≤ c(u,v).

The net flow from one vertex to another must not exceed the given
capacity.

2. Skew symmetry : For all u,v ∈V, we require f(u,v) = -f(v,u).

The net flow from a vertex u to a vertex v is the negative of the net
flow in the reverse direction

3. Flow conservation : For all u ∈ V - {s,t}, we require

∑ f(u,v) = 0.
v ∈V
The quantity f(u,v),which can be positive or negative , is called the
net flow from vertex u to v.
The value of the flow is defined as | f | = ∑ f(s,v) that is the totat
net Flow out of the source. v ∈V
 Residual Networks
 Given a flow network and a flow, residual network consists of
edges that can admit more flow.
 The amount of additional flow that can be pushed from u to v
before exceeding the capacity c(u,v) is the residual capacity of
(u,v), given by
Cf(u,v) - f(u,v)
 Given a flow network G=(V,E) and a flow f, the residual network
of G induced by f is Gf=(V,E) and a flow f, the Residual
Network of G
Ef={(u,v) V×V : cf(u,v)>0}

That is, each edge of residual network , or residual edge, can

 Augmenting Paths

 Given a flow network and a flow f, an augmenting

path p is a simple path from s to t in the residual
network Gf .
 Residual capacity of path p is defined as the
maximum amount by which we can increase the flow
on each edge of p, given by
cf(p)=min{cf(u,v) : (u,v) is on p}
 Cut(S,T) of flow network G=(V,E) is a partition of V
into S and T=V-S such that s ∈ S and t ∈ T.
 If f is a flow, then the net flow across the cut(S,T) is
defined to be f(S,T).
 The capacity of the cut (S,T) is c(S,T)
 A minimum cut of a network is a cut whose capacity
is minimum over all cuts of the network
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•The net flow across (S,T) is f(s,t)=19, and the capacity is c(S,T)=26
•The net flow across cut is
f(v1,v3) + f(v2,v3) + f(v2,v4) = 12+(-4)+11= 19
•Capacity is
c(v1,v3)+c(v2,v4) = 12 + 14 = 26
 Ford-Fulkerson-Method(G,s,t)
1. Initialize flow f to 0
2. While there exists an augmenting path p
3. Do augment flow f along p
4. Return f
 Ford Fulkerson algorithm
 The Ford Fulkerson method is iterative,

 Starts with f(u,v) for (u,v) ∈ V, initial flow of value 0.

 The method is based on the augmenting path which is

defined as a path from s to t along which we can push

more flow and then augment flow along this path.

Procedure Ford_Fulkerson_method(G,s,t):

For each edge (u,v) ∈ E[G]
 do f[u,v]  0
 f[v,u]  0
 While there exists path p from s to t in residual network Gf
 do cf(p)  min{ cf(u,v):(u,v) is in p}
 for each edge (u,v) in p
 do f[u,v] f[u,v] + cf(p)
 f[v,u] -f[u,v]
 Running time for this algorithms is O(E * |f*|) where f*
is the maximum flow found by algorithm.

 First three Lines take time θ(E).

 The while loop of last five lines is executed at most |f*|

times, since the flow value increases by at least one unit
in each iteration.
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 Max flow min cut theorem
 This theorem tell us that a flow is max. if and only if its
residual network contains no augmenting path.

The orem s tat es that ,

If f is a flow in a flow network, G = (V,E) with the source and
sink t then, the following conditions are equivalent:
5. F is a max. flow in G.

6. The residual network G1 contains no augments paths.

7. |F| = c(S,T) for some cut (S,T) of G.

 Maximum Bipartite Matching
 Given an undirected graph G=(V,E), matching is a
subset of edges M is subset of E such that for all vertices
v ∈ V, at most one edge of M is incident on v.

 We say that a vertex v ∈V is matched by matching M if

some edge in M is incident on v; otherwise, v is
unmatched.

 A maximum matching is a matching of maximum

cardinality, that is, a matching M such that for any
matching M’, we have |M|>= |M’|.
A bipartite graph G=(V,E) with vertex partition V= L U R

A matching with A matching with

Cardinality 2 Cardinality 3
 We can solve the maximum match finding
problem using flow networks.

 Put source and sink on the graph such that

source connects all the vertices on left side of
the graph with single edge to each vertex and
do the same for the sink. Now assign weight 1
to all the edges in the graph.

 Run ford Fulkerson algorithm to find max flow.

 Max. cardinality = Max flow