An Efficient Heuristic Algorithm for Solving Connected Vertex Cover Problem

The connected vertex cover (CVC) problem, which has many important applications, is a variant of the vertex cover problem, such as wireless network design, routing, and wavelength assignment problem. A good algorithm for the problem can help us improve engineering efficiency, cost savings, and resources consumption in industrial applications. In this work, we present an efficient algorithm GRASP-CVC (Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure for Connected Vertex Cover) for CVC in general graphs. The algorithm has two main phases, i.e., construction phase and local search phase. In the construction phase, to construct a high quality feasible initial solution, we design a greedy function and a restricted candidate list. In the local search phase, the configuration checking strategy is adopted to decrease the cycling problem. The experimental results demonstrate that GRASP-CVC is better than other comparison algorithms in terms of effectivity and efficiency