In graph theory, the graph bandwidth problem is to label the n vertices vi of a graph G with distinct integers f(vi) so that the quantity is minimized (E is the edge set of G). The problem may be visualized as placing the vertices of a graph at distinct integer points along the x-axis so that the length of the longest edge is minimized. Such placement is called linear graph arrangement, linear graph layout or linear graph placement.
The weighted graph bandwidth problem is a generalization wherein the edges are assigned weights wij and the cost function to be minimized is .