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Online Searching

MSIS Department and Civil Engineering Department, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin Texas 78712
SBC Technology Resources, Inc., 9505 Arboretum Blvd., Austin, Texas 78759
patrick.jaillet{at}bus.utexas.edu
matthew.stafford{at}cingular.com

We consider the problem of searching m branches which, with the exception of a common source s, are disjoint (hereafter called concurrent branches). A searcher, starting at s, must find a given "exit" t whose location, unknown to the searcher, is on one of the m branches. The problem is to find a strategy that minimizes the worst-case ratio between the total distance traveled and the length of the shortest path from s to t. Additional information may be available to the searcher before he begins his search.

In addition to finding optimal or near optimal deterministic online algorithms for these problems, this paper addresses the "value" of getting additional information before starting the search.

Subject classifications: Networks/graph, distance algorithms online searching; Search and surveillance: target discovery in graphs.
History: Received March 1998; revision received March 1999; revision received December 1999; accepted January 2001.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				P. Jaillet, M. Stafford, and S. Gal Note: Online Searching / on the Optimality of the Geometric Sequences for the m Ray Search Online Searching Operations Research, July 1, 2002; 50(4): 744 - 745. [PDF]