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The Ford–Fulkerson method or Ford–Fulkerson algorithm (FFA) is a greedy algorithm that computes the maximum flow in a flow network.It is sometimes called a "method" instead of an "algorithm" as the approach to finding augmenting paths in a residual graph is not fully specified [1] or it is specified in several implementations with different running times. [2]
The maximum flow problem was first formulated in 1954 by T. E. Harris and F. S. Ross as a simplified model of Soviet railway traffic flow. [1] [2] [3]In 1955, Lester R. Ford, Jr. and Delbert R. Fulkerson created the first known algorithm, the Ford–Fulkerson algorithm.
Also, the flow was obtained by Ford-Fulkerson algorithm, so it is the max-flow of the network as well. Also, since any flow in the network is always less than or equal to capacity of every cut possible in a network, the above described cut is also the min-cut which obtains the max-flow .
This concept is used in Ford–Fulkerson algorithm which computes the maximum flow in a flow network. Note that there can be an unsaturated path (a path with available capacity) from u to v in the residual network, even though there is no such path from u to v in the original network.
In computer science, the Edmonds–Karp algorithm is an implementation of the Ford–Fulkerson method for computing the maximum flow in a flow network in (| | | |) time. The algorithm was first published by Yefim Dinitz in 1970, [1] [2] and independently published by Jack Edmonds and Richard Karp in 1972. [3]
The max-flow min-cut theorem equates the value of a maximum flow to the value of a minimum cut, a partition of the vertices of the flow network that minimizes the total capacity of edges crossing from one side of the partition to the other. Approximate max-flow min-cut theorems provide an extension of this result to multi-commodity flow problems.
Lester Randolph Ford Jr. (September 23, 1927 – February 26, 2017) was an American mathematician specializing in network flow problems. He was the son of mathematician Lester R. Ford Sr. [ 1 ] Ford's paper with D. R. Fulkerson on the maximum flow problem and the Ford–Fulkerson algorithm for solving it, published as a technical report in 1954 ...
This caused a lack of any known polynomial-time algorithm to solve the max flow problem in generic cases. Dinitz's algorithm and the Edmonds–Karp algorithm (published in 1972) both independently showed that in the Ford–Fulkerson algorithm, if each augmenting path is the shortest one, then the length of the augmenting paths is non-decreasing ...