A Primal-Dual Approximation Algorithm for the Facility Location Problem with Submodular Penalties

We consider the facility location problem with submodular penalties (FLPSP), introduced by Hayrapetyan et al. (Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA), pp. 933–942, 2005), who presented a 2.50-approximation algorithm that is non-combinatorial because this algorithm has to solve the LP-relaxation of an integer program with exponential number of variables. The only known polynomial algorithm for this exponential LP is via the ellipsoid algorithm as the corresponding separation problem for its dual program can be solved in polynomial time. By exploring the properties of the submodular function, we offer a primal-dual 3-approximation combinatorial algorithm for this problem.