Beyond Tree Embeddings - a Deterministic Framework for Network Design with Deadlines or Delay

We consider network design problems with deadline or delay. All previous results for these models are based on randomized embedding of the graph into a tree (HST) and then solving the problem on this tree. We show that this is not necessary. In particular, we design a deterministic framework for these problems which is not based on embedding. This enables us to provide deterministic poly-log( n)-competitive algorithms for Steiner tree, generalized Steiner tree, node weighted Steiner tree, (non-uniform) facility location and directed Steiner tree with deadlines or with delay (where n is the number of nodes). Our deterministic algorithms also give improved guarantees over some previous randomized results. In addition, we show a lower bound of poly log(n) for some of these problems, which implies that our framework is optimal up to the power of the poly-log. Our algorithms and techniques differ significantly from those in all previous considerations of these problems.