Layered Graph Drawing with Few Gaps and Few Crossings

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Dobler, Alexander, Roithinger, Jakob
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Dobler, Alexander
Roithinger, Jakob
author_facet Dobler, Alexander
Roithinger, Jakob
contents We consider the task of drawing a graph on multiple horizontal layers, where each node is assigned a layer, and each edge connects nodes of different layers. Known algorithms determine the orders of nodes on each layer to minimize crossings between edges, increasing readability. Usually, this is done by repeated one-sided crossing minimization for each layer. These algorithms allow edges that connect nodes on non-neighboring layers, called ``long'' edges, to weave freely throughout layers of the graph, creating many ``gaps'' in each layer. As shown in a recent work on hive plots -- a similar visualization drawing vertices on multiple layers -- it can be beneficial to restrict the number of such gaps. We extend existing heuristics and exact algorithms for one-sided crossing minimization in a way that restricts the number of allowed gaps. The extended heuristics maintain approximation ratios, and in an experimental evaluation we show that they perform well with respect to the number of resulting crossings when compared with exact ILP formulations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_20896
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Layered Graph Drawing with Few Gaps and Few Crossings
Dobler, Alexander
Roithinger, Jakob
Data Structures and Algorithms
We consider the task of drawing a graph on multiple horizontal layers, where each node is assigned a layer, and each edge connects nodes of different layers. Known algorithms determine the orders of nodes on each layer to minimize crossings between edges, increasing readability. Usually, this is done by repeated one-sided crossing minimization for each layer. These algorithms allow edges that connect nodes on non-neighboring layers, called ``long'' edges, to weave freely throughout layers of the graph, creating many ``gaps'' in each layer. As shown in a recent work on hive plots -- a similar visualization drawing vertices on multiple layers -- it can be beneficial to restrict the number of such gaps. We extend existing heuristics and exact algorithms for one-sided crossing minimization in a way that restricts the number of allowed gaps. The extended heuristics maintain approximation ratios, and in an experimental evaluation we show that they perform well with respect to the number of resulting crossings when compared with exact ILP formulations.
title Layered Graph Drawing with Few Gaps and Few Crossings
topic Data Structures and Algorithms
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.20896