Augmenting forests to meet odd diameter requirements

Given a graph G=(V,E) and an integer D≥1, we consider the problem of augmenting G by the smallest number of new edges so that the diameter becomes at most D. It is known that no constant approximation algorithms to this problem with an arbitrary graph G can be obtained unless P=NP. For a forest G and an odd D≥3, it was open whether the problem is approximable within a constant factor. In this paper, we give the first constant factor approximation algorithm to the problem with a forest G and an odd D; our algorithm delivers an 8-approximate solution in O(|V|³) time. We also show that a 4-approximate solution to the problem with a forest G and an odd D can be obtained in linear time if the augmented graph is additionally required to be biconnected.