k-way Hypergraph Partitioning via n-Level Recursive Bisection

We develop a multilevel algorithm for hypergraph partitioning that contracts the vertices one at a time. Using several caching and lazy-evaluation techniques during coarsening and refinement, we reduce the running time by up to two-orders of magnitude compared to a naive n-level algorithm that would be adequate for ordinary graph partitioning. The overall performance is even better than the widely used hMetis hypergraph partitioner that uses a classical multilevel algorithm with few levels. Aided by a portfolio-based approach to initial partitioning and adaptive budgeting of imbalance within recursive bipartitioning, we achieve very high quality. We assembled a large benchmark set with 310 hypergraphs stemming from application areas such VLSI, SAT solving, social networks, and scientific computing. Experiments indicate that our algorithm is the method of choice for a wide range of hypergraph partitioning tasks. The algorithm presented in this work forms the basis of our hypergraph partitioning framework KaHyPar (Karlsruhe Hypergraph Partitioning).