Dynamic Arc-Flags in Road Networks

In this work we introduce a new data structure, named RoadSigns, which allows us to efficiently update the Arc-Flags of a graph in a dynamic scenario. Road-Signs can be used to compute Arc-Flags, can be efficiently updated and do not require large space consumption for many real-world graphs like, e.g., graphs arising from road networks. In detail, we define an algorithm to preprocess Road-Signs and an algorithm to update them each time that a weight increase operation occurs on an edge of the network. We also experimentally analyze the proposed algorithms in real-world road networks showing that they yields a significant speedup in the updating phase of Arc-Flags, at the cost of a very small space and time overhead in the preprocessing phase.