Improved Approximation Algorithms for the Facility Location Problems with Linear/Submodular Penalties

We consider the facility location problem with submodular penalties (FLPSP) and the facility location problem with linear penalties (FLPLP), two extensions of the classical facility location problem (FLP). First, we introduce a general algorithmic framework for a class of covering problems with submodular penalties, extending the recent result of Geunes et al. (Math Program 130:85–106, 2011) with linear penalties. This framework leverages existing approximation results for the original covering problems to obtain corresponding results for their counterparts with submodular penalties. Specifically, any LP-based $$\alpha $$α-approximation for the original covering problem can be leveraged to obtain an $$\left( 1-e^{-1/\alpha }\right) ^{-1}$$1-e-1/α-1-approximation algorithm for the counterpart with submodular penalties. Consequently, any LP-based approximation algorithm for the classical FLP (as a covering problem) can yield, via this framework, an approximation algorithm for the counterpart with submodular penalties. Second, by exploiting some special properties of submodular/linear penalty function, we present an LP rounding algorithm which has the currently best $$2$$2-approximation ratio over the previously best $$2.375$$2.375 by Li et al. (Theoret Comput Sci 476:109–117, 2013) for the FLPSP and another LP-rounding algorithm which has the currently best $$1.5148$$1.5148-approximation ratio over the previously best $$1.853$$1.853 by Xu and Xu (J Comb Optim 17:424–436, 2008) for the FLPLP, respectively.