On Variants of Network Flow Stability

TL;DR

This paper studies a generalized stable flow problem in directed networks with preference-based stability, extending Kirchhoff's law to a monotone piecewise linear relationship, and provides algorithms and complexity results.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized stable flow model with monotone piecewise linear constraints and offers a polynomial algorithm for existence, while analyzing the complexity of related optimization problems.

Findings

Existence of stable flows proven using Scarf's Lemma.

Polynomial time algorithm developed for finding stable flows.

Minimum cost generalized stable network problem is NP-hard.

Abstract

We consider a general stable flow problem in a directed and capacitated network, where each vertex has a strict preference list over the incoming and outgoing edges. A flow is stable if no group of vertices forming a path can mutually benefit by rerouting the flow. Motivated by applications in supply chain networks, we generalize the traditional Kirchhoff's law, requiring the outflow is equal to the inflow at every nonterminal node, to a monotone piecewise linear relationship between the inflows and the outflows. We show the existence of a stable flow using Scarf's Lemma, and provide a polynomial time algorithm to find such a stable flow. We further show that finding a minimum cost generalized stable network is NP-hard, while the problem is polynomial time solvable for the traditional stable flow satisfying Kirchhoff's law.