AN APPROXIMATION ALGORITHM FOR FULLY PLANAR EDGE-DISJOINT PATHS.

We devise a constant-factor approximation algorithm for the maximization version of the edge-disjoint paths problem if the supply graph together with the demand edges forms a planar graph. By planar duality, this is equivalent to packing cuts in a planar graph such that each cut contains exactly one demand edge. We also show that the natural linear programming relaxations have constant integrality gap, yielding an approximate max-multiflow min-multicut theorem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]