A simpler and faster strongly polynomial algorithm for generalized flow maximization

Abstract

We present a new strongly polynomial algorithm for generalized flow maximization. The first strongly polynomial algorithm for this problem was given very recently by Végh; our new algorithm is much simpler, and much faster. The complexity bound O((m+nlogn)mnlog(n2/m)) improves on the previous estimate obtained by Végh by almost a factor O(n2). Even for small numerical parameter values, our algorithm is essentially as fast as the best weakly polynomial algorithms. The key new technical idea is relaxing primal feasibility conditions. This allows us to work almost exclusively with integral flows, in contrast to all previous algorithms.