The Minimum Reload s-tPath/Trail/Walk Problems

This paper deals with problems on non-oriented edge-colored graphs. The aim is to find a route between two given vertices s and t. This route can be a walk, a trail or a path. Each time a vertex is crossed by a walk there is an associated non-negative reload cost ri,j , where i and j denote, respectively, the colors of successive edges in this walk. The goal is to find a route whose total reload cost is minimum. Polynomial algorithms and proofs of NP-hardness are given for particular cases: when the triangle inequality is satisfied or not, when reload costs are symmetric (i.e. ri,j = rj,i) or asymmetric. We also investigate bounded degree graphs and planar graphs.