A polynomial algorithm to compute the minimum degree spanning trees of directed acyclic graphs with applications to the broadcast problem

In this paper, we focus on the directed minimum degree spanning tree problem and the minimum time broadcast problem. Firstly, we propose a polynomial time algorithm for the minimum degree spanning tree problem in directed acyclic graphs. The algorithm starts with an arbitrary spanning tree, and iteratively reduces the number of vertices of maximum degree. We can prove that the algorithm must reduce a vertex of the maximum degree for each phase, and finally result in an optimal tree. The algorithm terminates in O(mnlogn) time, where m and n are the numbers of edges and vertices of the graph, respectively. Moreover, we apply the new algorithm to the minimum time broadcast problem. Two consequences for directed acyclic graphs are: (1) the problem under the vertex-disjoint paths mode can be approximated within a factor of of the optimum in O(mnlogn)-time; (2) the problem under the edge-disjoint paths mode can be approximated within a factor of O(Δ^*/logΔ^*) of the optimum in O(mnlogn)-time, where Δ^* is the minimum k such that there is a spanning tree of the graph with maximum degree k.