Bounded max-colorings of graphs

Abstract

In a bounded max-coloring of a vertex/edge weighted graph, each color class is of cardinality at most b and of weight equal to the weight of the heaviest vertex/edge in this class. The bounded max-vertex/edge-coloring problems ask for such a coloring minimizing the sum of all color classes' weights. These problems generalize the well known max-coloring problems by taking into account the number of available resources (colors) in practical applications. In this paper we present complexity results and approximation algorithms for the bounded max-coloring problems on general graphs, bipartite graphs and trees. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.