Paths and Intersections: Characterization of Quasi-metrics in Directed Okamura-Seymour Instances

Abstract: We study the following distance realization problem. Given a quasi-metric $D$ on a set $T$ of terminals, does there exist a directed Okamura-Seymour graph that realizes $D$ as the (directed) shortest-path distance metric on $T$? We show that, if we are further given the circular ordering of terminals lying on the boundary, then Monge property is a sufficient and necessary condition. This generalizes previous results for undirected Okamura-Seymour instances. With the circular ordering, we give a greedy algorithm for constructing a directed Okamura-Seymour instance that realizes the input quasi-metric. The algorithm takes the dual perspective concerning flows and routings, and is based on a new way of analyzing graph structures, by viewing graphs as \emph{paths and their intersections}. We believe this new understanding is of independent interest and will prove useful in other problems in graph theory and graph algorithms. We also design an efficient algorithm for finding such a circular ordering that makes $D$ satisfy Monge property, if one exists. Combined with our result above, this gives an efficient algorithm for the distance realization problem.