Zero-suppressed decision diagram (original) (raw)

A zero-suppressed decision diagram (ZSDD or ZDD) is a particular kind of binary decision diagram (BDD) with fixed variable ordering. This data structure provides a canonically compact representation of sets, particularly suitable for certain combinatorial problems. Recall the Ordered Binary Decision Diagram (OBDD) reduction strategy, i.e. a node is replaced with one of its children if both out-edges point to the same node. In contrast, a node in a ZDD is replaced with its negative child if its positive edge points to the terminal node 0. This provides an alternative strong normal form, with improved compression of sparse sets. It is based on a reduction rule devised by Shin-ichi Minato in 1993.