Optimal L(h,k)-Labeling of Regular Grids

The L(h, k)-labeling is an assignment of non negative integer labels to the nodes of a graph such that 'close' nodes have labels which differ by at least k, and 'very close' nodes have labels which differ by at least h. The span of an L(h,k)-labeling is the difference between the largest and the smallest assigned label. We study L(h, k)-labelings of cellular, squared and hexagonal grids, seeking those with minimum span for each value of k and h ≥ k. The L(h,k)-labeling problem has been intensively studied in some special cases, i.e. when k=0 (vertex coloring), h=k (vertex coloring the square of the graph) and h=2k (radio- or λ-coloring) but no results are known in the general case for regular grids. In this paper, we completely solve the L(h,k)-labeling problem on regular grids, finding exact values of the span for each value of h and k; only in a small interval we provide different upper and lower bounds.