Steiner trees for terminals constrained to curves

Abstract

We give a polynomial time algorithm for solving the Euclidean Steiner tree problem when the terminals are constrained to lie on a fixed finite set of disjoint finite-length compact simple smooth curves. The problem is known to be NP-hard in general. We also show it to be NP-hard if the terminals lie on two parallel infinite lines or on a bent line segment provided the bend has an angle of less than 120°.