A simple greedy approximation algorithm for the unit disk cover problem

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Given a set $\mathcal P$ of $n$ points in the plane, the unit disk cover problem, which is known as an NP-hard problem, seeks to find the minimum number of unit disks that can cover all points of $\mathcal P$. We present a new $4$-approximation algorithm with running time $O(n \log n)$ for this problem. Our proposed algorithm uses a simple approach and is easy to understand and implement.

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