Algorithm Engineering for Route Planning – An Update –

Nowadays, route planning systems belong to the most frequently used information systems. The algorithmic core problem of such systems, i.e., the fast computation of shortest paths is a classical problem that can be solved by Dijkstra’s shortest paths algorithm. However, for the huge datasets that frequently appear in route planning the algorithm is far too slow. Recently, algorithms for route planning in transportation networks have undergone a rapid development, leading to methods that are more than a million times faster than Dijkstra’s algorithm. In particular, computing shortest paths in huge networks has become a showpiece of algorithm engineering demonstrating the engineering cycle that consists of design, analysis, implementation and experimental evaluation of practicable algorithms. In this talk, we provide a condensed overview of the techniques enabling this development. In particular, new theoretical insights on when and why those techniques work so well will be discussed. The main part of the talk will focus on variants of the problem that occur in more realistic traffic scenarios.