Periodic Constraint Satisfaction Problems: Polynomial-Time Algorithms

We study a generalization of the constraint satisfaction problem (CSP), the periodic constraint satisfaction problem. An input instance of the periodic CSP is a finite set of “generating” constraints over a structured variable set that implicitly specifies a larger, possibly infinite set of constraints; the problem is to decide whether or not the larger set of constraints has a satisfying assignment. This model is natural for studying constraint networks consisting of constraints obeying a high degree of regularity or symmetry. Our main contribution is the identification of two broad polynomial-time tractable subclasses of the periodic CSP.