A new approximation algorithm for the k-facility location problem

The k-facility location problem is a common generalization of the facility location and the k-median problems. For the metric uncapacitated k-facility location problem, we propose a polynomial-time 2 + $\sqrt{3} + \epsilon$-approximation algorithm using the local search approach, which significantly improves the previously known approximation ratio 4, given by Jain et al. using the greedy method (J. ACM 50 (2003) 795–824).

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