Breaching the 2-Approximation Barrier for Connectivity Augmentation

Explore a groundbreaking conference talk on connectivity augmentation in network design. Delve into the challenge of improving network survivability by adding links to increase connectivity. Learn about the state-of-the-art approaches, including the classification of links and the reduction to the Steiner Tree problem. Discover a novel marking scheme and analysis that breaks the long-standing 2-approximation barrier. Gain insights into the upper bound for cost and the approximation factor analysis. Conclude with a discussion on open problems in this critical area of network optimization and survivability.