Algorithms & Data Structures Question

Map Routing:

Implement the classic Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm and optimize it for maps. Such algorithms are widely used in geographic information systems (GIS) including MapQuest and GPS-based car navigation systems.

Your goal:

Optimize Dijkstra’s algorithm so that it can process thousands of shortest path queries for a given map. Once you read in (and optionally preprocess) the map, your program should solve shortest path problems in sublinear time. One method would be to precompute the shortest path for all pairs of vertices; however you cannot afford the quadratic space required to store all of this information. Your goal is to reduce the amount of work involved per shortest path computation, without using excessive space. We suggest a number of potential ideas below which you may choose to implement. Or you can develop and implement your own ideas.

You need to implement 2 improvement ideas, in order to get full points on the coding part. If you come up with your own ideas, you will get extra credits. (up to 10 points)