Localized and compact data-structure for comparability graphs

We show that every comparability graph of any two-dimensional poset over n elements (a.k.a. permutation graph) can be preprocessed in O(n) time, if two linear extensions of the poset are given, to produce an O(n) space data-structure supporting distance queries in constant time. The data-structure is localized and given as a distance labeling, that is each vertex receives a label of O(logn) bits so that distance queries between any two vertices are answered by inspecting their labels only. This result improves the previous scheme due to Katz, Katz and Peleg M. Katz, N.A. Katz, D. Peleg, Distance labeling schemes for well-separated graph classes, Discrete Applied Mathematics 145 (2005) 384-402] by a log n factor.As a byproduct, our data-structure supports all-pair shortest-path queries in O(d) time for distance-d pairs, and so identifies in constant time the first edge along a shortest path between any source and destination.More fundamentally, we show that this optimal space and time data-structure cannot be extended for higher dimension posets. More precisely, we prove that for comparability graphs of three-dimensional posets, every distance labeling scheme requires Ω(n^1/3) bit labels.