Smaller Selection Networks for Cardinality Constraints Encoding

Selection comparator networks have been studied for many years. Recently, they have been successfully applied to encode cardinality constraints for SAT-solvers. To decrease the size of generated formula there is a need for constructions of selection networks that can be efficiently generated and produce networks of small sizes for the practical range of their two parameters: n – the number of inputs (boolean variables) and k – the number of selected items (a cardinality bound). In this paper we give and analyze a new construction of smaller selection networks that are based on the pairwise selection networks introduced by Codish and Zanon-Ivry. We prove also that standard encodings of cardinality constraints with selection networks preserve arc-consistency.