Shortest Path
In a Geo-spatial Network application, it is a common feature to compute shortest paths for
various purposes, e.g. planning a route from current location to a destination on the geographic
map; scheduling nearest Uber cars to users requesting ride service.
Specifically, there are two types of tasks to compute shortest paths: single-source and multi-
source, both of which are computed based on weighted graph structures. One of the most
important algorithms in the 20th is Dijkstra's Algorithm.
Generality
a path from 𝓋0 -> 𝓋k is defined by p (𝓋0 -> 𝓋0 is 0), and the shortest path from source 𝓊 to 𝓋
is:
Figure 1. A Delta Function Denotes the Shortest Path Total Value
Single-Source
Given weighted graph G = (V, E), weight w(u, v) of two vertices (u, v) and a source S, compute
δ(S, vi) wherein vi is a vertex from vertices set V.
Figure 2. Auxiliary Static Data Structure to Store Shortest Paths
Mathematically, use the above structure to initialize to infinity and converge to the shortest paths
values from a given source S would yield the final solution at hand.
In addition, define another array πi (i=1,2,...,n) to track the predecessor of all vertices, where
π[s] = s in order to output the shortest paths.
Note: the convergence step is formally termed as Relaxation, which would be covered in
Dijkstra's Algorithm discussion.
The classical Dijkstra's Algorithm and Bellman-Ford algorithm are further discussed based on
the above assumptions.
Dijkstra's Algorithm
Invented by Turing Award winner Edsger W. Dijkstra, this algorithm adopts a greedy approach
to search for the shortest path among all the paths leading from a single source to the destination.
Fundamental Ideas
It is applicable for both directed and undirected graphs, in which the edges must have non-
negative weights. In the original version of Dijkstra's algorithm, it only tries to find the minimal
path between two nodes, but more commonly the modern variant can find the shortest paths from
a single source to all other nodes, producing a shortest path tree.
vertices whose final shortest paths have been computed. Repeatedly select 𝓊 out of V - S with
Specifically, for each edge (u, v) in a non-negative weighted graph G, maintain a set S of
minimum shortest path estimate, add 𝓊 to S and relax all edges adjacent and reachable from 𝓊.
DIJKSTRA(graph, source)
Initialize d array to either Infinity or 0 (s = source)
Initialize π array of vertices with their self
set S := empty
Q := a priority queue of reachable vertices from source
while Q != empty
u = EXTRACT_MIN(Q) // deletes a vertex with minimal distance to the
source
S.add(u)
for vertex v adjacent to u
RELAX(u, v, d, π)
output array d and π
RELAX(u, v, d, π)
if d[v] > d[u] + w(u, v)
d[v] = d[u] + w(u, v)
π[v] = u;
