not a subset of R and/or a combining operator not
equal to the classic sum (+), then in (Gondran and
Minoux, 2008), authors present new models and al-
gorithms discussing relations between particular val-
uation structure: the semiring and diod structures with
graphs and their combinatorial properties.
In (Sedgewick and Wayne, 2011), a longest path be-
tween two given nodes s and t in a weighted graph
G is the same thing as a shortest path in a graph −G
derived from G by changing every weight to its nega-
tion. Therefore, if shortest paths can be found in −G,
then longest paths can also be found in G. This result
remains true if we have a valued graph G by a valua-
tion structure S?
In this paper, we provide an answer to this question
by discussing equivalence between longest path and
shortest path problem given a valuation structure S.
We present a generalization of Dijkstra-Moore Algo-
rithm for a graph G with a S
⊕
valuation structure. And
we present a generalization of Bellman-Ford Algo-
rithm with a more general valuation structure S.
We propose to model both the valuations of a graph G
and the combining operator by a valuation structure
S, in order to discuss the generalization of the short-
est path algorithms according to the properties of the
graph G and the valuation structure S:
• The valuation structure of G is S
⊕
.
• The graph G and the valuation structure S are ar-
bitrary.
The paper is organized as follows: the next Section
introduces definitions and notations needed in pre-
senting the generalization of the shortest path algo-
rithms. In Section 3 we study the extended Shortest
Path Notion and the equivalence between longest path
and shortest path problem. We propose a generalized
shortest path algorithms in Section 4. The paper is
concluded in Section 5.
2 DEFINITIONS AND
NOTATIONS
2.1 A Directed Digraph G
The peculiarity of the shortest path problem requires
to distinguish two directions between any two nodes.
In this case, the connection between two nodes x and
y can be defined by the directed connection between
an original node for example x and a destination node
y.
Definition 1. A directed digraph G = (E
S
,E
~
A
) is de-
fined by a set of nodes E
S
and a set of directed edges
E
~
A
, each edge (arc) is the connection between an
original node and a destination node.
If x and y are two nodes:
• the directed connection from x to y (denoted ~xy), if
it exists, is a directed connection (arc) of a graph
G.
• An arc ~xx: the directed connection from x to x is
known as a loop.
• A p-graph is a graph wherein there is never more
than p arcs ~xy between any two nodes.
• A Monograph is a graph wherein there is never
more than 1 arc ~xy between any two nodes and
there is never a loop.
2.2 A Valuation Structure
We assume that E the set of all possible valuations, is
a totally ordered set where ⊥ denotes its minimal ele-
ment and > its maximal element. In addition, we will
use a monotone binary operator ⊕. These elements
form a valuation structure defined as follows
Definition 2. A valuation structure S of a graph G is
the triplet S = (E,⊕,) such as
• E is the set of possible valuations;
• is a total order on E;
• ⊕ is commutative, associative and monotone.
We define below a fire and strictly monotone valua-
tion structure.
Definition 3. A valuation structure S is fire if for each
pair of valuations α,β ∈ E, such as α β, there is a
maximum difference between β and α denoted β α.
An aggregation operator ⊕ is strictly monotonic if for
any α,β,γ in E such as α ≺ β and γ 6= >, we have
α ⊕ γ ≺ β ⊕ γ.
A valuation structure S is strictly monotonic if it has
an aggregation operator strictly monotonic.
In the remainder of this paper, we use only fire and
strictly monotone valuation structures.
The fire and strictly monotone valuation structures
satisfy the following two Lemmas, that has been
proved in (Cooper, 2004), (Lemma 7 and Theorem
38).
Lemma 1. Let S = (E,⊕,) a valuation structure
fire and strictly monotone. Then for all α,β,γ ∈ E
such as γ β, we have (β γ) β and (α ⊕ γ) ⊕
(β γ) = α ⊕ β.
Lemma 2. Let S = (E,⊕,) a valuation structure
fire and strictly monotone. Then for all α,β,γ ∈ E
such as γ β, we have (α ⊕ β) γ = α ⊕ (β γ).
Extended Shortest Path Problem - Generalized Dijkstra-Moore and Bellman-Ford Algorithms
307