Parallel and Sequential Data Structures and Algorithms , 15 - 210 ( Fall 2013

The first graph search approach we consider is breadth first search (BFS). BFS can be applied to solve a variety of problems including: finding all the vertices reachable from a vertex v, finding if an undirected graph is connected, finding the shortest path from a vertex v to all other vertices, determining if a graph is bipartite, bounding the diameter of an undirected graph, partitioning graphs, and as a subroutine for finding the maximum flow in a flow network (using Ford-Fulkerson’s algorithm). BFS, as with the other graph searches, can be applied to both directed and undirected graphs. In the directed case we only consider the outgoing arcs when searching.