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Temporal connectivity: Coping with foreseen and unforeseen delays

  • Eugen Füchsle
  • , Hendrik Molter
  • , Rolf Niedermeier
  • , Malte Renken

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Consider planning a trip in a train network. In contrast to, say, a road network, the edges are temporal , i.e., they are only available at certain times. Another important difficulty is that trains, unfortunately, sometimes get delayed. This is especially bad if it causes one to miss subsequent trains. The best way to prepare against this is to have a connection that is robust to some number of (small) delays. An important factor in determining the robustness of a connection is how far in advance delays are announced. We give polynomial-time algorithms for the two extreme cases: delays known before departure and delays occurring without prior warning (the latter leading to a two-player game scenario). Interestingly, in the latter case, we show that the problem becomes PSPACE-complete if the itinerary is demanded to be a path.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)258-276
    Number of pages19
    JournalDiscrete Applied Mathematics
    Volume391
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 15 Oct 2026

    UN SDGs

    This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

    1. SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
      SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

    Keywords

    • Dynamic programming
    • Flow computations
    • Paths and walks in temporal graphs
    • PSPACE-completeness
    • Static expansions of temporal graphs
    • Two-player games

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Discrete Mathematics and Combinatorics
    • Applied Mathematics

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