New Local Search Strategy for the Minimum s-Club Cover Problem

Thanh Pham Dinh, Tuan Anh Do, Son Nguyen Hung, Thai Nguyen Duc

Abstract


The Minimum s-Club Cover problem presents significant challenges in social networks and group interactions
analysis. Several studies have employed hybrid approaches to solve this problem, notably combining local search techniques with multifactorial evolutionary algorithms. To enhance the computational efficiency of such hybrid methodologies, this study proposes a novel local search method designed specifically for integration with a multifactorial evolutionary framework. The proposed local search algorithm is based on a combination of greedy and exhaustive strategies. The greedy strategy is applied when selecting clubs, while the exhaustive strategy is used when determining the appropriate clubs for vertex relocation. Unlike existing local search methods that operate at the vertex level, the proposed algorithm focuses on manipulating clubs directly. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is evaluated using benchmark datasets from the DIMACS library. Experimental results demonstrate that the algorithm achieves competitive performance, validating its potential in solving the Minimum s-Club Cover problem.


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.31449/inf.v49i3.10695

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