SAT-Based Tree Decomposition with Iterative Cascading Policy Selection

Solvers for propositional satisfiability (SAT) effectively tackle hard optimization problems. However, translating to SAT can cause a significant size increase, restricting its use to smaller instances. To mitigate this, frameworks using multiple local SAT calls for gradually improving a heuristic solution have been proposed. The performance of such algorithmic frameworks heavily relies on critical parameters, including the size of selected local instances and the time allocated per SAT call. This paper examines the automated configuration of the treewidth SAT-based local improvement method (TW-SLIM) framework, which uses multiple SAT calls for computing tree decompositions of small width, a fundamental problem in combinatorial optimization. We explore various TW-SLIM configuration methods, including offline learning and real-time adjustments, significantly outperforming default settings in multi-SAT scenarios with changing problems. Building upon insights gained from offline training and real-time configurations for TW-SLIM, we propose the iterative cascading policy—a novel hybrid technique that uniquely combines both. The iterative cascading policy employs a pool of 30 configurations obtained through clustering-based offline methods, deploying them in dynamic cascades across multiple rounds. In each round, the 30 configurations are tested according to the cascading ordering, and the best tree decomposition is retained for further improvement, with the option to adjust the following ordering of cascades. This iterative approach significantly enhances the performance of TW-SLIM beyond baseline results, even within varying global timeouts. This highlights the effectiveness of the proposed iterative cascading policy in enhancing the efficiency and efficacy of complex algorithmic frameworks like TW-SLIM.