CHECKCOL: Improved local search for graph coloring

In this paper we present a novel coloring algorithm based on local search. We analyze its performance, and report several experimental results on DIMACS benchmark graphs. From our experiments, this algorithm looks robust, and yields a substantial speed up on previous algorithms for coloring. Our algorithm improves the best known coloring for four different DIMACS benchmark graphs: namely, Le450-25c, Le450-25d and Flat300_28_0 and Flat1000_76_0. Furthermore, we have run experiments on a simulator to get insights on its cache consciousness: from these experiments, it appears that the algorithm performs substantially less cache misses than other existing algorithms.